


The last time I kissed him

by Sayuri (Sayuri_Kato)



Series: The last time [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, F/M, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Original Missions, POV Original Female Character, Secret Relationship, Shower Sex, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:42:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 50
Words: 59,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24199921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sayuri_Kato/pseuds/Sayuri
Summary: No one remembers that Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha had twins, because of a gruesome incident that drove the head of the Uchiha Clan to make a drastic decision. But she's here now, trying to fit in and make a life for herself in Konoha, after Sasuke kills Orochimaru.Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan, the silver haired Copy Ninja who always prefers being alone, did not expect to be so attracted to her.PS: For those of you who are not interested in the story, go to smutty chapters 13, 17, 20, 35, 37, 42, 46! ^_^ The last three tags are for chapters 42 and 46. :D
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The last time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818397
Comments: 74
Kudos: 90





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this is going, to be honest. I've just started watching Naruto again as I had some free time because of the pandemic and I just couldn't take this one idea out of my head: what if Kakashi had a young girlfriend?
> 
> Editor: Vivienne_Blackthorn. Thank you for always correcting my mistakes and typos! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading this! :D
> 
> PS: I'm a sucker for comments, they make my day. :-"

The last time I kissed him was during the war.

Tomorrow is my birthday. Well, tomorrow is in two hours. I’ll be 18 years old.

Yesterday, me, Naruto and two other shinobi were called to the Hokage’s office to be officially promoted to chunin. I haven’t tried the flak jacket on yet. I’ve just stared at it.

In three days, he will become Hokage. I can’t wait to watch him become leader of this village I can’t seem to be able to call home yet. I’m happy for him, though, not going to lie.

In one week, it will be exactly one month since Naruto and Sasuke finished their final fight. One month since I told him I decided to give him time to put his thoughts in order. 

“You have one month. Don’t talk to me, don’t touch me, don’t look at me. Come find me in one month. I’ll tell you if I still want you and you’ll tell me your decision.” As if I would ever stop loving him. 

Tonight, I’m on my balcony, dressed in a short red kimono made of silk. I’m also not stuffing my face with dango and I’m not drinking sake straight out of the bottle. Of course NOT. (Don’t judge, I’m living alone. No one can see me. Well, except for the “oh so in love” couples that are still strolling, enjoying the night air and being romantic. Bleah.) And I’m definitely NOT staring at the silver necklace I found in a cute little box hidden inside one of the many pockets of my new flak jacket. I hate it. (I fucking love it). Three silver charms on a leather cord. A cobra snake, a dog paw and a lightning bolt. I don’t like any of them. (I fucking love them all). My summoning snake, Kanda, is NOT a cobra snake and the dog paw does NOT look like Pakkun’s cute paw and both mine and his chakra do NOT have an affinity towards lightning element and and and… So yeah, as I was saying, I hate (love) the necklace and I don’t know (I know) who it is from.

I run my fingers through my long black hair (and when I say long, I mean ankle – length) as I finish eating the last dumpling. I throw the stick away and I can’t help but chuckle when it gets stuck vertically in a small crack in the floor. I look up at the sky for a while, then I get up from the chair I’ve been sitting on all this time and I slap my face with both of my palms. 

“Cheer up, you bitch,” I say to myself. I’m not going to be sad on my birthday. It’s bad enough that I decided to leave the ramen place early and spend the night alone at home. I probably should have stayed longer. “Stop drinking sake like a sad bitch,” I say again and before I even finish the sentence, I find myself throwing the half full (half empty) bottle of sake into the air. There goes my drink. I hope the bottle won’t hit anyone when it falls down. (I hope it hits some dude right in the forehead and ruins his date. Ha!). 

Suddenly, I hear a girl screaming and a man yelling “what the fuck is this”, and then the girl says “this smells like sake”, and the man yells again “it got in my eyes” and I can’t hear the rest of the conversation because they startled me and I managed to step right onto the wooden stick I dropped earlier. I’m barefoot. 

I stare at the now bloody stick protruding from my left foot as I slap both of my hands over my mouth to stop myself from screaming. I slowly raise my foot as I throw together all the swear words that I know. With the fucking stick still in my foot, I hop like a retarded rabbit back inside, because I’m not sure I’m not a bit drunk and I don’t want to fall off the balcony as well. I plop down on the bed, then I gently grab the tip of the stick between two fingers and yank it out as fast as I can. I hold it in front of my eyes for a second and that’s when I notice the clock on the wall. It’s one minute past midnight.

Happy fucking birthday to me.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m out.”

Everyone – except Jugo, who didn’t really give a damn - slowly turned their heads towards me, staring. Karin was shocked, Suigetsu and Kisame were grinning at me and Sasuke was frowning. The only one that posed a threat was Madara; even though his mask covered his face, his body was tensed and his posture made me think that he would attack me if I moved. However, he nodded and folded his arms.

“What do you really want?” he asked, in a serious voice.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” I replied, then turned my eyes to Sasuke. “Itachi killed our clan to protect Konoha and now you want to destroy Konoha? Did Karin suck your dick too hard and she accidentally swallowed your brain too?”

Karin started screaming something, but the sound was drowned by Sasuke’s sword clashing mine. We had both activated Sharingan, he was angry, I was amused. 

“Don’t disrespect me,” he growled, pressing harder on the sword.

“Fuck you”, I spat, still holding my ground. “I’m not sick like Itachi was and I don’t love you the way he did. I’m not going to let you live if you challenge me.”

I said it on purpose, I knew it would enrage him and I wanted him to attack me so I could teach him a lesson. What I didn’t expect was to see Suigetsu and Kisame coming at me, and Karin and Jugo trying to stop Sasuke. What the others didn’t expect was that both me and Sasuke activated Chidori Nagashi.

It’s a twin thing.  
~~~~~  
It’s been two days since I left the Akatsuki hideout and my stupid brother behind. Madara had given him the task of finding and capturing the Hachibi – too much for team Taka, in my opinion, but eh, it will give me time to reach Konoha in peace.

I’m not worried about the Leaf shinobi killing me. I’m a monster and I don’t mean that in a light way. Orochimaru gave me the Cursed Seal of Heaven, but I convinced him after a while it wasn’t enough; next came the Cursed Seal of Earth. I was lucky to be alive and I know it. So now I have both Cursed Seals, one on the left side of my neck, the other on the right side. I can take the transformation to a third level now; on the second level, I grow dragon wings, but on the third…I actually transform into one. Imagine a summoning snake with wings. There you go.

I don’t use the third level too often, though, it leaves my body paralyzed for a few days. Me, Orochimaru and Kabuto are the only ones that know about the third level; well, Orochimaru used to know, he’s dead now, killed by my idiot twin brother.

I’m going to give the Leaf two things: information (everything I know about Akatsuki, Sasuke’s intentions, the truth about Itachi) and Akira – another one of my secrets, that not even Orochimaru knew about. I left him at my former hideout, but I’ll take a small detour and pick him up. 

Akira is my one and only succesful experiment; I’ve lived with Orochimaru since I was five, of course I’d try my hand with experiments. Kabuto teaching me medical jutsu helped as well. He is really skilled – not skilled enough to save the life of Kaguya Kimimaro, though. 

Kimimaro was my best friend and the best person I knew. Too bad he was obsessed with becoming Orochimaru’s next vessel and very bad that he succumbed to his mysterious illness.

Akira is a Kaguya and Uchiha hybrid. I created him using DNA from me, Sasuke, Itachi, Kimimaro and a little bit of Orochimaru, so that different parts don’t reject each other. He looks like a young dark – haired Kimimaro now. He’s about four and I used a surrogate mother for him. What I tried to do was to create the perfect shinobi. Is there anything better than a shinobi with not one, but two bloodline limits? Guess not. Akira can use the Kaguya clan bloodline limit –bone manipulation and regeneration – and he had managed to awaken his Sharingan during a stressful situation, and that is the short and bloody rebellion of the monsters kept in my former hideout. It was probably too much for him at that time to see me cut people in half.

The Leaf shinobi will probably be appalled. I can’t wait to see their faces when I tell them about my Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I believe it's better that Sayuri joins Konoha after Pain's attack, as I didn't really feel about involving her in that fight.

I felt really bad about fighting with Sasuke and saying those cruel words about Karin. It was Akira’s fault, he had to look at me with his big dark green eyes and ask about Sasuke. That made me question my decision to go to Konoha with information, so I decided to stay at the hideout with Akira and train him while I make up my mind. Wrong move, he’d found me.  
“What are you thinking about?”  
“What are you doing here?”  
I hope Akira stays hidden. I don’t think I can win a fight against him. I still remember how he stopped my sword infused with lightning chakra with his left hand.  
“I was hoping you changed your mind, Sayuri,” Madara said, casually sipping some tea.  
I grit my teeth in silent fury. That was my tea. However, I say nothing about the fucking tea, I just clear my voice.  
“And why is that?”  
“I was thinking about sending you to capture Kyubi. You know, since you’re going to Konoha and all.”  
“I’m not going to Konoha.”  
Madara stays silent for a few seconds. I’m losing my mind. I have to make him leave before he notices Akira.  
“You seem distracted. Are you really alone here? Is there anything I should know?”  
If I use the third level of the cursed seal, will it be enough to kill him? But if I don’t kill him, I’m done for, he’ll kill me after I’m paralyzed.  
“I’m staying here because I want to be alone. Am I alone right now? No, there’s a dickhead drinking my tea.”  
Good job, bitch. You had one job, brain. You had to keep my mouth shut.  
Madara starts laughing, then picks up the cup and drinks the rest of the tea. Only his mouth and his right eye are visible, the rest of his face is covered with bandages. It doesn’t seem like he wants to leave.  
“What can you tell me about the child that stoped hiding unsuccessfully in this building and is now behind that door, listening to us?”  
Well, that went well. Fuck everything, I’m going to run.  
“Ask him yourself. Come inside.”  
The door slowly creeks open, and cute little Akira walks inside. I can’t help but smile when I see him, with his worried little face and his eyes big. He thinks I’m mad he disobeyed me.  
“Oh? It’s just a child. A child with a very interesting chakra, though. Is he…”  
He never gets to finish his sentence. He gets up fast as he sees me activating Mangekyou, because he thinks I’ll use Amaterasu. However, I use Body Flicker Technique to get behind Akira and I put my right arm around him, the sword in my hand. I have the summoning tattoo on my left wrist so, fortunately, I don’t need to waste time with hand signs.  
I see Madara coming at us just as Kanda, my summoning cobra snake, closes her mouth with us inside and disappears back to the Ryūchi Cave. I’ll just have to convince her to let me and Akira spend some time there with her, so that Madara can leave us alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Call me weird, but I liked staying in the Ryuchi Cave. I’ve always got on well with summoning snakes, even Manda liked me. And he never liked anyone. Oh, I almost forgot, Sasuke managed to get him killed too.  
While at the cave, I got Akira to sign the contract, so he’ll be able to summon snakes too. I mainly hung out with Kanda, who is the most sassy and hilarious snake in this cave, but I also spent some time with Aoda, who highly respects Sasuke.  
“Vacation’s over, Sayuri – bitch,” Kanda told me one day. “Get your ass out there and make up with your brother. Also get yourself a man. Bye, Akira - kun!”  
And now we’re outside. And for fuck’s sake, we are close to a battlefield. Oh, what do my eyes see? My beloved brother, fighting a blond guy and a silver haired masked guy – judging by their forehead protectors, they are Leaf shinobi - , then I spot Karin on the ground, covered in blood, and a pink haired girl seems to be healing her. Wait, back that up. Karin is wounded and a Konoha medical ninja is healing her? Also Sasuke seems like he lost his fucking minds and the blond dude sounds really desperate when he yells Sasuke’s name. Could they be his former team? Hmm. They are also from Konoha, the place I intended to go, so I might as well wait for the fight to be over.  
Or I can be a stupid bitch and jump right in the middle of them! I was just in time to defend the silver haired ninja, blocking Sasuke’s sword with mine. We stare each other in the eyes and I can’t help but notice all the blood on his face…blood dripping from his eyes.  
“You didn’t get Itachi’s eyes yet?”  
“You’re not dead yet?”  
“I’m sorry I was a bitch to you.”  
“No, you’re not. Now get out of my way.”  
He swings his sword forcefully, pushing me back, but he’s tired, probably from a previous fight, so when I kick him in the chest, I send him flying across the air. I probably shouldn’t have powered up my kick with that much chakra, I might have broken a rib. Or two.  
“Who are you?”  
I turn around and I find the silver haired shinobi staring at me, a kunai in each of his hand. His eye…That’s Sharingan. Even I’ve heard about him. He’s Kakashi of the Sharingan. Half of his face is covered by a mask and I get a sudden urge to pull it off, so I can see his face.  
“Did you make a decision, Sayuri?”  
That’s Madara’s voice, I realise. I also hear the blond young man and Sasuke yelling something at each other, but I don’t care. I make sure that Akira is nowhere near Madara, and I don’t take my eyes off of him until Madara and Sasuke disappear.  
It’s then that I look around and look at every person still here: Karin seems fine, the pink haired girl is crying, the blond ninja is on his knees, but I can’s see his face, so I don’t know if he’s crying too, and then there’s the silver haired Kakashi of the Sharingan, still staring at me. Still holding the kunai knives in his hands. He’s going to attack me, I can feel it.  
So I do the only thing I can think about in that moment: I turn my back to him, swing my hair out of the way and point with my thumb to the Uchiha crest on the back of my shirt.  
“I don’t plan to fight you,” I say, sheathing my sword. “I’d like to request protection from Konoha, as I’m part of the Uchiha clan.”  
He can’t say no to this and I know it. I also believe he is the captain of this team, as he looks like the most capable out of them, so I hand him my sword and my hip pouch. It’s not like I really need weapons to protect myself, but I want him to know I’m serious about not attacking them.  
“I’m also not alone. Akira, come here.”  
I place my hand of Akira’s shoulder as soon as he reaches me, then I look into the silver haired shinobi’s eyes again.  
The thing I expected: he nodded.  
The thing I didn’t expect: the way his eyes traveled up and down my body send shivers through me. And not the bad kind of shivers.


	5. Chapter 5

So the blond guy’s name is Naruto, the pink haired girl is Sakura and they are Sasuke’s former teammates. And Kakashi is his former sensei.  
“So you are the one who taught him Chidori,” I tell Kakashi, trying to start a conversation, after some time on the road to Konoha.   
I’m a bit bored because no one is talking to me. But boy, do they stare…especially Naruto and Sakura.  
“Where have you been all this time, slut?” Karin asks me, eyeing me suspiciously.  
Naruto is carrying her on his back, as the poor little victim is too wounded to walk.  
“You talk too much since Sasuke pulled his dick out of your mouth,” I reply, laughing.  
The pink haired girl looks at me shocked, then slowly turns her attention to Karin, who turns as red as her hair and is suddenly not wounded enough to jump on me and try to strangle me.  
To everyone’s surprise, I catch Karin and spin around with her in my arms, still laughing.  
“I’m glad you’re not dead, bitch,” she says, smiling. “So, where were you?”  
“Ryuchi Cave,” I reply after I put her down.   
“Did the snakes choke you good, freak?”  
“You bet. Who tried to kill you?”  
She looks away before answering, in a whispered voice, “Sasuke.”  
I say nothing as I pat her head in sympathy, but I’m not really surprised.   
The one who breaks the silence is Akira, when he gently pulls on the sleeve of my loose white shirt and asks “Why would Sasuke put his dick in her mouth in the first place?”  
Karin laughs like no tomorrow as I try to hide my face with my other sleeve.  
“Cover that cleavage if you want to cover something, bitch,” she says, looking at the low – cut black bodysuit I’m wearing underneath the loose white shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back. The bodysuit is also bareback, for when I want to use the curse mark and grow dragon wings. I just take the shirt off and that’s it, no ruined clothes.  
“As much we are enjoying this pointless bickering, we are in a hurry.”   
Kakashi speaks in a low commanding voice, making me straighten my back and gulp. Reminds me of Orochimaru when I used to take things too far and annoy him for real.  
“We don’t really mean the things we are saying, “ I say, clearing my voice. “It’s the way we joke with each other, that’s all. We didn’t mean to offend anyone.”  
I see Karin bawling her eyes out at me, because I never – and I mean NEVER – apologize for the things I say, no matter how cruel or vulgar they may be. I have a dirty mouth and I’m not sorry about it. Usually.  
Kakashi says nothing, but I see Sakura and Naruto breathe a sigh of relief.   
It’s safe to say I kept my mouth shut until we reached Konoha.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It has been an hour since they have brought me in an underground interrogation room. I don’t really mind, I’m a patient person when I want too…it’s just that right now I’m tired and really really hungry. I’ve taken off the loose white shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back because the room is too hot for my liking. I’m now only wearing black tight pants and a sleeveless bareback black bodysuit. I’m ready to use the second level of the curse mark anytime, just grow dragon wings and get the fuck out of here if anything happens.   
I don’t think I’m not going to tell them about the third level of the curse mark or about Akira. Should I play the victim?  
I breathe and try to calm myself. I came here to tell the truth about everything. If they don’t want to offer me a place in their village, I’ll just get the fuck out.   
I turn my attention to the door when I hear it getting unlocked. The silver haired shinobi from before, Kakashi, is the first to get inside. His only visible eye traces the curves of my body – I know I’m showing a lot of skin, but I plan to use this to my advantage, since I’ve noticed the way he’s looking at me.   
Some more masked shinobi – judging from their appearance and what Orochimaru has told me, they are ANBU – enter the room and the last one closes and locks the door.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I’m sprawled on the table, hands in front of me, whining about how hungry and tired I am. I’ve told them everything I know about Madara – which is not much – then I explained my abilities.I tell them about Akira. They don’t seem to be interested about my past, as they just assume I’ve been kidnapped by Orochimaru and used in his experiment.  
I feel gloved hands gently touching mine and I raise my head. Kakashi is sitting in front of me.  
“If I give you a map, can you mark every hideout you think of, that Sasuke might be using?”   
His lips are moving slightly beneath his mask and, encouraged by the fact that he’s literally holding my hands, I say without thinking “Maybe if you take of your mask and let me see it, I could do that.”  
He instantly lets go of my hands and sighs.  
“How about you take me out to eat something?” I offer, grinning.   
He’s just staring at me, not saying anything.  
I sigh, dropping my head on the table again and I don’t look up when I hear the door opening.  
“Hokage-sama wants to see her.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put the tag "underage" because she is 17.

Apparently, as I have been considered dead all this time and no one even thought I existed, I’m not registered in any Bingo book as a missing – nin, nor am I accused of any crime. Perks of staying hidden inside Orochimaru’s hideout, I suppose.  
Anyways, the Hokage and her advisors decided to test the extent of my abilities and then register me as a genin in Konoha. Moreover, they were willing to let Akira join the Academy and give him a chance to have a normal life.  
They don’t trust me, though. So, in exchange for all of the above, I have to agree to something: they are going to put a seal on me – it’s a forbidden jutsu – that will put me in coma if I activate Mangekyou. And it’s a really powerful seal, it disappears when the person who put it there dies or removes it.  
If I don’t accept, though, Tsunade informed me with a smile on her face that she will have no choice but to let me go, but I should expect to be a considered a missing – nin and a dangerous criminal the moment I step outside the village.  
I could have been free if not for my unreasonable ambition to be a part of Konoha, something my father took away from me when I was only a few days old.  
But here I am, in this small apartment they gave me, in front of the mirror, staring at the complicated tattoo on my chest – the seal I accepted - holding the forehead protector in my hand. Akira will not live with me, some guy named Iruka offered to take him in until the Hokage decides what to do with him.  
Akira accepted everything with a “Yes, Sayuri – sama” that made me feel guilty. That Iruka guy seemed like a nice man and he bonded with Akira really fast, but I don’t know yet if it’s just an act or it’s genuine. I’ll just have to keep my eyes on him.  
I need to clear my head, so I put on some loose pants and a comfortable T shirt and I leave the apartment. I’m going to stroll around the village and then go visit the former Uchiha grounds. I need to see them for myself.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I’m not sure you should be here.”  
He stood behind me for five minutes before saying something. He probably decided to speak because he saw me standing in front of the gate leading to the Uchiha grounds like an idiot.  
I slowly turn around to face him and the sight suddenly angers me; he’s not casual, like me, he’s dressed like a ninja and he’s got weapons. He had probably been tasked with keeping on eye on me. Might as well give him something to do.  
I use Body Flicker Technique to approach him in a flash, then I try to hit him with my leg. He seems surprise, but crouches almost immediately, so my leg only goes through the top of his silver hair. He manages to dodge my next attacks too, but he doesn’t take me seriously, I can feel it. Probably because I haven’t activated my Sharingan. What he doesn’t expect is that I can partially transform only parts of my body using the curse mark, so he’s still got his hands on the leg I swung at him when I transform the fingers on my left hand into claws and scratch at his face and rip his mask.  
It was not my intention to hurt him, I only went for the mask, which hangs in strips around his neck, revealing a very handsome face, high cheekbones and kissable lips and all. The faint scratches on his right cheek make him look like he lost a fight with a cat. I chuckle and get distracted, so I can’t do anything when he grabs my ankle and my left wrist and spins me, then pushes me face first into the nearest tree.  
When I was little, Orochimaru told me that a long time ago, the Uchihas would cut their hair only when they lost a fight. I was so hungry for this kind of information, that I decided to do so too. Hence, my ankle length hair.  
So now, all I can think about is if this fight counts as a loss or not – I wasn’t fighting seriously, right? – and that the way he presses his body into mine to keep me from moving is making me really hot.  
It suddenly starts raining – of course it does, even the sky wants to cool me down probably. Kakashi doesn’t move a muscle, he keeps pushing his body into mine as he ask me “Why are you trying to provoke me?”  
I struggle a little, and he lets me go, taking only one step back. I turn around, looking at his face. I let my eyes linger on the mole underneath the left corner of his bottom lip for a second. Only now do I notice that he’s so much taller than me; my mouth is on the same level as his collarbones. An image of me biting his collarbones flashes through my dirty brain, not gonna lie.  
I look up to meet his eyes, but he’s looking at my body. My T shirt is drenched in water and gets stuck to my body, leaving little to the imagination. I don’t know if it’s because of his intense stare or because I’m cold from the rain, my nipples are visible through the wet material.  
“Is it working?” I ask, my voice small.  
He places one of his hands on my hip, then slowly moves it up, until it snakes around my waist. He places the other one on my neck, his index finger and thumb pressed against my jawline. I grab his jacket with both of my hands and pull him closer, then lick my lips. I don’t move, though. I want him to do it. And oh boy, he does. He angles my head, then gently touches my lips with his. I close my eyes and lean into him, wanting more, so he presses his lips to mine, really kissing me. He strengthens the grip on my waist, pulling me even closer, pressing me so hard against him that I can feel his hard muscles and his hard…ahem. You know. I slightly part my lips and I feel the tip of his tongue tracing my bottom lip, teasing me. He softly kisses the corner of my mouth, then moves his lips to my jawline, leaving a trail of fire alongside it. He moves his hand to the back of my neck, then through my hair, grabbing a fistful and pulling my head back and I let out a soft moan when he grazes my neck with his teeth.  
And that’s when he stops and pulls back. We’re both panting a little as we’re looking at each other and I shiver. I’m completely wet – ha ha, I know what you’re thinking - and now that he’s not keeping me pressed to him, I actually feel cold.  
“Go home,” he says, his voice hoarse, so he clears it before adding “This is wrong. It won’t happen again.”  
“Why is it wrong?” I’m honestly confused.  
“How old are you, 17? This shouldn’t have happened.” He grabs my shoulders with his hands and shakes me a little. “This has never happened. Please. Okay?”  
He shakes me again when I don’t answer.  
“Okay, fine! Damn, don’t get your panties in a twist, it was just a little kissing…And yes, I’m 17, what does it have to do with everything…?”  
“Go home, okay? Just go home.”  
He turns his back to me and runs away – literally runs away, leaving me standing in the rain.  
What the actual fuck?  
I scratch at my wet head, then fold my arms over my chest. That was really weird. Did we break a rule of the village or something? Hmm. I’ll just have to ask around and discover at what age you can kiss and have sex in this village. I’ve kissed people before – Kakashi is a pro, oh yes – but I’ve never had sex and I’m a little too curious at how it would feel. No reason!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter last night. I couldn't sleep because of a bad tooth ache. I was in the mood for a lot of unnecessary dialogue. Sorry in advance.

I arrived early in the morning at Iruka’s apartment, but for some reason I got shy right before knocking on the door, so I just stood outside until he came out.  
“Oh, Sayuri, I didn’t know you were here,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Have you been here long?”  
“No,” I lie, with my hands behind my back. “Is Akira awake?”  
“Yes, he’s just eating breakfast, come inside.”  
I enter his apartment and look around. It’s not messy, but not cluster free either. However, for some reason, it looks like a home.  
“Do you live alone? No girlfriend?”  
“No, no, it’s just me.” He laughs a bit, but he seems uneasy.   
“Do I make you uncomfortable?”  
He doesn’t get to answer because Akira runs towards me, with a big smile on his face. “Good morning, Sayuri – sama!”  
I gently pat the top of his head, smiling as well. Then I turn my attention to Iruka and bow my head shortly. “Thank you for taking care of him. Why, though?”  
“It’s just that…Tsunade – sama thinks you should concentrate on other things for the moment…I’m sure you’ll be able to take him to live with you eventually. But, I have to ask…who is he, really? When I asked Tsunade – sama, she told me to ask you. Is he, uhm….?”  
I raise an eyebrow at him, waiting.  
“Is he your son?” He looks beyond embarrassed.  
“No, chill. He’s an experiment, so be careful with him. He looks cute and all, but he’s also very powerful. Also, we’re not that attached to each other to live together, we are something like master and student.”  
Iruka looks shocked. “An experiment?” he asks, his eyes on Akira.  
I nod. “Don’t worry, he’s not violent by nature. Let’s just hope the other kids at the Academy don’t get a sudden urge to bully him,” I said, laughing.   
“What have I gotten myself into?”  
“Don’t worry too much about it. You’re taking him to the Academy today, right?”  
“Uhm, yes, the children are supposed to start taijutsu today.”  
“Ah, perfect, he’s not very good at it yet. He can’t break bones yet.”  
Iruka looks like he’s about to faint. “Please tell him not to break any bones today! Or any day, for that matter!”  
I laugh again and say “He knows how to obey orders, don’t worry about it too much, really. You just have to tell him specifically what you want him to do. Let me give you an example.” I clear my voice, then I turn my attention to the child. “Akira, honey, when you you train with the other kids, you must not hurt them in any way. Also, if anyone tries to challenge you, politely decline, okay?”  
He nods and I gently ruffle his hair.  
“See? It’s easy. Just tell him what you want him to do. He’s a good child.”  
Iruka looks at me, biting on a fingernail. “Akira, can you go finish your breakfast? I’ll join you in a minute.”  
The green eyed kid looks at me first, so I realize I forgot a very important part. “You’ll have to listen to Iruka and the other sensei at the Academy, okay? You can trust the people in this village, it’s different from the hideout.”  
Akira nods again, then waves his hand at me and leaves the room. I’m alone with Iruka now, who seems really troubled. “What is he?”  
“I told you, he’s an experiment. He’s a Uchiha and Kaguya hybrid. He’s got Sharingan and the ability to use his own bones as weapons. He can also use the Great Fireball Technique. He’s not very good at fighting yet, I only taught him how to defend himself just in case.”  
I place my hand on Iruka’s shoulder. “You worry so much, it’s not healthy for you. Calm down for a second. He likes you, everything will be fine.” I smile at him sweetly. “I like you, too. I’m glad Akira got to stay with you.”  
He smiles too, a bit relieved. “I don’t know what to think about you yet, to be honest. Time will tell. I’ll do my best to take care of Akira for the time being.”  
I bow my head again to him, then I start towards the door. “Okay, then. I’ll go now, sorry to have bothered you.”  
“Before you go, Naruto was searching for you yesterday evening. He said you weren’t home.”  
“I was…” Making out with Kakashi in front of the gates of the Uchiha domain. “Taking a walk through the village. But it started raining and I waited for it to stop in a shop. Where can I find him?”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I go to the training grounds, as Iruka told me that’s where I’m going to find Naruto. He’s there, talking with another young man, a very pale, black haired guy.  
“Good morning,” I say as I approach them.   
Another shinobi, a brown haired one, joins them at the same time as me and he has a big white fluffy dog with him.  
“Oh wow, such a cute dog!” I exclaim, crouching down to pat the dog.  
“Hey, be careful, he’s a ninja dog, not…”  
The dog drops on the ground, belly up, as I ruffle his fur and tell him how cute and fluffy he is.  
“…a puppy,” the brown haired young man finishes his sentence, sighing. “His name is Akamaru.”  
“Akamaru, you’re such a cute dog,” I tell the dog, still petting him. “Don’t worry, dogs like me.” I get back up, dusting my pants. “I’m Sayuri.”  
“Kiba,” he replies and I notice the way he’s eyeing me. He probably thinks I’m beautiful, but I’m not interested in him.   
“You’ve already met me,” Naruto joins the conversation. “And this is Sai,” he adds, introducing the pale brunet.  
“Nice to meet all of you,” I reply, then settle my eyes on Naruto. “I heard you were looking for me yesterday.”  
“Yes, I wanted to tell you that we’re all going to be at the barbecue restaurant tonight and that you should come too. I bet everyone wants to meet you.”  
I nod, stuffing my hands in my pockets. “Cool. Come pick me up, I hate going alone in a restaurant.”  
“I’ll pick you up if you want,” Kiba says, grinning at me.   
“She asked me first,” Naruto mutters.  
I look at them, shrugging. I know who I’d like to come pick me up, but I keep my mouth shut.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It’s Naruto who shows up at my door that evening. I’ve just finished putting my hair up in a high ponytail when he knocks. I’m wearing a simple gray T shirt dress with the Uchiha crest on the back and knee high gladiator sandals. The summoning tattoo on my left wrist is visible and it’s first thing Naruto notices, though he says nothing about it.   
We don’t talk on the way to the restaurant, and for some reason he seems tense. I recognize a trap when I see one; I bet there’s another interrogation waiting for me in there.  
We get inside and make our way to the booth where his friends are. When we get there, eleven sets of eyes look up at the same time, and some are looking at me suspiciously. Most of them, okay.  
I swallow past the lump in my throat and whisper a “hello”, then look around for an empty spot to sat my ass on. My ass actually wants to go outside and never look back, to be honest. Too many people to meet today, thank you very much!  
Kiba raises one arm and waves me over, so I decide I’ll sit next to him for tonight. Across from me, there’s a fat guy, Kiba is to my right and to my left is a long haired man, who I’m having a staring contest with, for about twenty seconds, until Naruto clears his voice and introduces me. “Everyone, this is Sayuri, the new genin Grandma Tsunade has accepted in Konoha.”  
The only sound is the sizzling of the meat on the grill. I want to leave so badly, please let me leave this place. I’m not used to people looking at me like that, usually they bow to me or beg me to stop torturing/hurting/experimenting.  
“Nice to meet all of you,” I use the same phrase as when I met Kiba and Sai earlier.  
The fat guy in front of me spots a cooked piece of meat on the grill and picks it up with his chopsticks. Thinking fast – everyone loves jokes, right? – I grab another set of chopsticks and steal the piece from him seconds before he eats it.  
“Let me test it for poison,” I say, putting it in my mouth.   
No one moves or says anything for a few seconds. Then, the fat guy suddenly starts laughing at my joke and picks another piece of meat. “That was a good one. I’m Akimichi Chouji and I really like food.”  
No shit, I think, you can’t get fat by really liking water, but then again, I like drinking sake directly from the bottle sometimes, so I’m not going to judge him.  
Everybody seem to relax after that and begin introducing each other. So, the long haired guy that was staring at me ugly in the beginning and another girl are from the Hyuuga Clan, Neji and Hinata – I heard about their bloodline limit, the Byakugan – next to Sakura is a blonde girl, named Ino, another black haired guy, who looks extremely bored is Shikamaru, Sai smiles at me every time I make eye contact with him, Naruto still looks uncomfortable for some reason, a dark haired boy with bushy eyebrows named Lee is interested in my taijutsu training and the girl next to him, Tenten, sighs dramatically every time Lee speaks the word training. Far away from me, sitting next to the shy Hyuuga girl is a young man wearing sunglasses – inside, what the actual fuck – named Shino. All this time, Chouji has kept eating peacefully, oblivious to the conversation. I’m honestly shocked that these people can be friends, they are so different.  
After some time, without thinking, I raise an arm and order some sake, but Kiba immediately intervenes. “What are you doing? You can’t order alcohol.”  
I’m genuinely surprised. “Why?”  
“We are too young to drink alcohol,” Ino replies to my question, laughing. “There is an age limit to ordering alcohol in public places.”  
Hm. Seems like a good moment to ask about these so called age limits.  
“That’s weird. So what other age limits are there? When will it be acceptable to drink alcohol, gamble or have sex in this village?”  
Naruto chokes on the piece of meat he was eating. “What the hell?” Everyone has a similar reaction, except for Sai, who doesn’t seem fazed.  
“Come on, it’s a good question. Why is there an age limit to having fun, but there is none when it comes to risking your life fighting or killing people?”  
“That’s too dark a subject to talk about when you’re having barbecue,” Ino says, chuckling. “Only adults do these things, okay? But you seem to have lived a different life when you were…”  
“I’ve obviously had sake before, it’s not like there was someone to tell me no. I pretty much spent my time training and learning things, but sometimes I would sneak out of the hideout and go have fun.”  
“Did you have any friends there?” Kiba asks me.  
My best friend is dead. He died when Sasuke left your village. “I wouldn’t call them friends. Acquaintances is better.”  
“What about the girl in the cells?” Neji doesn’t look at me as he asks me that. So it is an interrogation after all.  
“What about her?”   
“Also, what about the kid living with Iruka – sensei?” This time it’s Shikamaru.   
I pick a piece of red pepper off the grill and bite on it. I’m not supposed to talk about Akira.  
“He’s just an orphan.”  
“A very young one. Did Orochimaru experiment on him?” Neji again.  
I resist the urge to throw the chopsticks into his eyes. It would probably not make a very good impression.  
“Girls, what do you say we go have some dango and let the boys finish the barbecue, hm?” Sakura asks suddenly, forcing a laugh.   
“Great idea,” Tenten replies, smiling a bit too wide.  
Ino gets up first, then comes up to me and grabs my arm. “You can come with us too, Sayuri. Do you like dango?”  
“Sure.” I let her drag me outside, and the other three girls follow us. This is probably the good cop, bad cop thing, but I’m not too bothered about it. I could probably get some dango for Karin too and visit her later.  
The girls, however, don’t ask me anything about Akira or experiments. We mostly talk about boys. I roll my eyes when I hear how Ino and Sakura were both in love with Sasuke – now Ino thinks Sai is cute and Sakura refuses to answer when I ask her if she is still in love with my brother, I don’t believe Tenten when she says she is not interested in anyone and we all laugh and make fun of Hinata’s obvious crush on Naruto.   
It’s late when I get home. Karin was happy about the dango and gossip I brought with me, but I couldn’t spend that much time with her because of the guards.  
It’s late because I spent a lot of time in front of the Uchiha domain again. I want to go inside, I really do, but for some reason I can’t.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I call this dango fluff. Please enjoy my type of fluff! xD   
> Don't hesitate to leave comments!

It’s been five days since I came to Konoha. I’ve had a mission to escort an old pervert that kept trying to touch my butt, but I handled him. I put him in genjutsu and had Kanda carry him on her back the rest of the way. We unfortunately got attacked by bandits right after I woke him up and the poor man lost one of his money pouches – I don’t know how it ended in my backpack, such an accident - , but he was so happy to be back home that he didn’t really care. While in my genjutsu, he saw himself going through danger after danger.  
The rest of the time, I’ve kept myself busy by training Akira and trying to persuade him to make some friends at the Academy. I accidentaly bumped into Kiba a few times when I went out to eat – sure, Kiba, what a coincidence.  
It’s late at night, but I’m not tired.I have a stick with dango in each of my hand, as I bought too many and Karin couldn’t eat all of them. Karin’s guards let me stay longer with her this time, probably the sake and dango I brought for them helped. Even though she’s locked in a cell, she doesn’t seem to be mistreated. Some of the guards sneak her in food and books all the time, Karin knows how to take her of herself.   
I look up at the full moon as I’m approaching the apartment building I live in and I notice a dark figure on the roof. Without hurrying, I send chakra to my feet and climb the wall of the building, then I take a few steps towards the figure. He is laying on his back, arms folded beneath his head. He’s wearing a loose short sleeved shirt, so I can see that his left arm is bandaged.  
“Hello, stranger,” I tell him, amused to find him here.   
He turns his head to face me. He’s wearing his mask, but not the forehead protector, so his silver hair – I didn’t notice the way it shines in the moonlight, trust me – covers his Sharingan eye.  
“It’s pretty late for you to be walking alone at night,” he tells me, in his usual serious voice.  
“Another age limit?” I sigh, stepping closer to him. Before he can stop me, I sit in his lap, my legs on both sides of his body. He tenses a bit and starts saying something, but I cut him off “Can you lift you knees up a little?” I lean back until I touch the back of his legs, then I extend one arm, offering him one of the sticks with three dumplings on it. “Here. I’ll share.”  
“Do you know what boundaries are?” he asks me, but he doesn’t seem angry.   
“Nope. Are you going to eat this?”  
“Are you trying to make me take my mask off?”  
“Do you want me to scratch it off of your face again? Did it turn you on?”  
He shakes his head at me and I chuckle.   
“I actually came here to apologize,” Kakashi says as he takes the stick of dumplings.   
I wave him off. “I’m not mad. I just didn’t understand what happened.”  
“Do you know how old I am?”  
I groan. “Ah, this fucking age talk again. Naruto invited me to have barbecue with him and his friends a few days ago and they didn’t let me order sake because apparently we are not old enough to order alcohol. What the hell, can you believe it?”  
“Stop swearing,” he says. “There are some rules you have to abide by when you live in a village…”  
“Blah, blah, blah,” I interrupt him, then I suddenly grab his mask, pull it off and stuff a dumpling into his mouth. “I’ve had my first mission, too. I think it’s safe to say it went better than yours,” I add, looking at his bandaged arm.  
He finishes eating the dumpling before speaking “It’s just a scratch.”  
“Let me see.”  
“I said I’m fine.”  
“What are you, five? Let me see.”  
I ignore his further protests, then gently take his arm and bring it closer to me. He lays his head directly on the wooden roof, not looking at me.   
Because my other hand is occupied with the stick with dango, I draw some chakra from the curse mark to elongate my canines, then I bite the bandage and cut into it with my fangs. I let if fall down, inspecting the wound for a second.  
“That’s pretty deep for a scratch.”  
“I wasn’t paying attention. My mind was somewhere else,” he says, still not looking at me.  
I chuckle, then I eat my last dumpling and let the stick drop near my leg. I place my now free hand over his wound and start healing it.  
“You know these dumplings are not really healthy, right?” Kakashi is still holding the stick I have him, with two remaining dango on it.  
“Don’t worry, I’ll eat yours too.”  
“I didn’t know you are a medical ninja,” he says, when I’m finished.   
“I’m not. See, now it looks like a scratch,” I reply. I’m still holding his arm, that now has a red faint line instead of a deep wound.   
He gives me back the stick with dumplings, then places both of his hands on my hips and adjusts his position so that he’s sitting now, holding me in his lap. I automatically hook my legs behind his back and press against him, feeling him harden. He leans back to kiss me but I move my head, choosing to bite from a dumpling instead. He chuckles into my neck, kissing the sensitive skin softly, and I respond by rolling my hips a bit, grinding into him. I do that a few more times – I’m still eating those damn dumplings, like the little bitch that I am – until I’m satisfied with how hard he is. When I finish the dango, I place a hand on his chest and push him back down, following him with a mischievous smile on my lips. When our chests touch, I lean in, but instead of kissing him, I pull his mask back up and tap his lips twice.  
“There,” I say, getting up. “I’m tired, I’m going to sleep. Good night, Kakashi! Be happy it’s not raining,” I add, turning my back to him and walking away from him.  
“So you are mad about the other day,” he groans, but I don’t turn around. I’m grinning like an idiot and I don’t want him to see my face.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to put the tag "graphic depictions of violence" for this chapter, which tells the story of how Sayuri ended up with Orochimaru.  
> I'm trying to make Sayuri a combination of a villain and a sometimes good girl, am I doing this right?

I’d be lying if I said we don’t see each other often. He usually tries to tell me that we can’t do this anymore, that he’s too old for me and other things like that, but it’s hard for him to speak with his tongue inside my mouth. Or his lips on my neck.  
We also talk a lot. Sometimes about our missions or everyday life, other times one of us opens up about the past.  
He told me about his father’s suicide and how his former teammates and sensei died, so I decided it’s finally time to tell him how I ended up with Orochimaru.  
I was born with my Sharingan activated, something that apparently never happens. But that was not the reason my father decided to get rid of me. The leader of the Uchiha clan didn’t think too much of it as he proudly looked at his twins, Sayuri and Sasuke, thinking what great ninja they will become.  
A few days after the birth, Fugaku came home to find his wife and newborn son unconscious, and the old woman who had helped Mikoto deliver the babies and stayed to help her with the twins was on the floor, with both of her hands digging so deep into her own throat that he could see the tips of her fingers coming out the back of her neck. Blood everywhere. The culprit seemed to be his own daughter, as she tried to put him under genjutsu too.  
When his younger brother, Fukashi, came to bring Itachi home, Fugaku gave them the sad news that he had found his daughter dead in her crib. It was not unusual for babies to have unknown illnesses and die, after all.  
Mikoto was the only one who knew the truth. He was the clan leader, he couldn’t afford to have a demon instead of a daughter. He believed himself to be a cold hearted man, so he took his daughter that never cried, just stared with her Sharingan eyes, into the forest, with the intention to kill her. He couldn’t do that with his own hands, though, so he just left her there.  
Little did he know, a couple from another land, The Land of the Rice Fields, would pass that exact forest on their way home the next day, would find a baby and would take her home with them. They named the girl Chieko, which means one thousand blessings, happy to have found her and saved her life.  
How were they supposed to know that the girl would bring a curse over their family? They didn’t know why her eyes sometimes turned red and what it meant. Their son, Akio, who was only three years old, was already protective of his new little sister and everybody seemed to love her.  
Four years later, tragedy struck the family. While playing together outside, the kids decided to climb a tree. Akio fell and broke his neck, because his little sister tripped and pushed him by mistake. Chieko’s eyes took the form of a black pentagram with curved tips. Her adoptive parents feared her unusual eyes now and every other child from the village avoided her.  
One day, a pale male with long black hair approached her when she was outside, using her eyes on a fox. She didn’t really mind being alone, because she had started to believe that something was wrong with her.  
“I can help you learn how to use your eyes better,” he said.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
We have been quiet for a few minutes before Kakashi said “You couldn’t possibly remember what happened before that family took you in. Who told you the story, Orochimaru?”  
I shake my head. “It was Fugaku himself,” I reply and Kakashi’s eyebrows shot up.  
“Orochimaru knew about the Sharingan and it didn’t take him long to discover my Mangekyou during training. He also knew the story about how Madara Uchiha almost became blind before he took his brother’s eyes, so he decided to send me after two years of intensive training to Konoha with a select few to steal my father’s eyes. I don’t know how he discovered that Fugaku had awakened his Mangekyou.”  
“Why would he send you, too? You were six years old, what could you do? And how did he know who you were?”  
“He send me there as a distraction. He guessed who I was because he knew about Fugaku’s dead daughter. He knew a lot of secrets. My age matched and I was obviously an Uchiha because of the bloodline limit. In case he was wrong, he would just get himself a pair of Mangekyou Sharingan eyes to use in one of his experiments, no loss for him. But when Fugaku saw me, he recognized me immediately because I was looking just like my mother. You should have seen Sasuke’s face when he first saw me, in Orochimaru’s hideout. He thought I was Mikoto.”  
Kakashi placed one hand on my left knee, squeezing lightly. “I never heard about an attack on the Uchiha during that time, though.”  
“Because the attack never happened. Fugaku offered us Masamune, the sick boy of his younger brother. The boy had awakened Sharingan due to the shock of losing his mother, whom he was very attached to, but according to my father he was suffering from an unknown disease that would kill him sooner rather than later. He told me how sorry he was that he couldn’t kill me. Mikoto accidentally walked in on us while we were talking and that’s when I learned my real, name Sayuri. That was the last and only time I ever saw my parents, because one year later Itachi killed the whole clan except for Sasuke.”  
The silver haired man looks beyond shocked. “Fugaku gave Orochimaru a boy from his own clan?”  
“Better a dying boy than the clan leader,” I reply, shrugging. “He was reported missing and that was it. Orochimaru wasn’t very happy when we brought a sick seven year old boy and not Fugaku’s eyes, but there was nothing he could do. He filled Masamune up with medicine to prolong his life and forced him to kill the medical ninja that was taking care of him. She had black hair and onyx eyes, she looked similar to an Uchiha and she treated him kindly, so it was no surprise that he eventually grew attached to her. What I didn’t know, though, was that Masamune had started to become obsessed with Orochimaru. He thought he was being trained to become his next vessel. He didn’t know that Orochimaru had his eyes on Sasuke.”  
“What happened to Masamune?”  
“Kabuto was already Orochimaru’s right hand when he believed it was time for the surgery, so we had an expert medical ninja with us. I insisted he should try to give him new eyes, because I felt really guilty about stealing his. I had really bad eyesight by then, because of the extensive use of my Mangekyou. Masamune survived the extraction and the new eyes Kabuto had planted into him were working, but he killed himself when he realised that he was no longer fit to be Orochimaru’s vessel. Kabuto had found him with gashes so deep on his arms he could see his bones. When I woke up from my surgery and Kabuto told me Masamune had commited suicide, I cried for hours. I still feel guilty to this day, I know I could have stopped that if I wanted to.”  
Kakashi gently strokes my back when he sees that my eyes fill with tears, but I blink them away. “Crying is not going to bring him back or erase everything that I’ve done. I just have to live with the horrible things that I’ve done and try to become a better person.”  
“Why did you come to Konoha?”  
“Because Orochimaru died and I had nowhere else to go, that’s one reason. The second and most important is that all my life I believed this village to be something that my father had taken from me. He should have protected me and teach me how to control these eyes.”  
I look up, trying to keep the tears from falling. I can’t stop them from streaming down my face when he pulls me into his arms. Masamune is the only one I feel guilty about, to be honest, but I don’t tell him this. I don’t feel guilty about the experiments, as I’m sure Orochimaru didn’t feel either. It’s probably a good idea to keep my mouth shut about them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to send my characters on a mission that will probably span over two or three chapters, I haven't decided yet. I hope you like the story so far!  
> I'm always writing while listening to One Ok Rock on spotify - all the songs on shuffle! Check them out if you don't know their songs!

I woke up early this morning, because I had been summoned to the Hokage’s office. I’m not a heavy sleeper, so when I felt something slimy and slippery moving across my forehead, I woke up with a yelp.  
It was a talking slug. For a second, I thought I was still sleeping and having a weird dream.  
“Tsunade – sama is requesting your presence in her office for an important mission,” the slug said. “A secret mission, so please get dressed and don’t tell anyone where you are going.”  
I later learned her name is Katsuyu and she is Tsunade’s personal summon.  
I get dressed in my usual mission attire –bareback bodysuit, black pants and loose long shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back. I tie the forehead protector around my waist, then I put my hair up in a ponytail. On my way to the door, I grab my weapon pouch and my sword, then I make my way to the Hokage’s office.  
When I get there, I knock on the door and enter when invited. I’m surprised to see three men are already there; Shikamaru, Kakashi and a brown haired man turn to look at me when I open the door.  
“Am I late?” I ask as I approach the others.  
“No,” Tsunade replies, joining her fingers in front of her face. “You will be the forth member of this team.” She gestures towards the three men. “You already know Kakashi and Shikamaru. The other one is Yamato.”  
“The mission?” I ask, and arch an eyebrow when she doesn’t reply, just smiles at me. “Oh, I see. The captain of the team will disclose information to me on a need to know basis,” I add, rolling my eyes. I’ve done this before, when Orochimaru had sent me on missions, but it was always me the one holding all the cards. “Who is the leader?”  
Tsunade points to Kakashi, then turns her attention back to me. “Questions?”  
“Yes,” I reply, tapping a nail against the seal on my chest. “When am I getting my eyes back?”  
“Soon.”  
“I’ll just remove it myself if you don’t do it soon enough.”  
“You don’t know whose blood we used,” she counters, leaning back on her chair. “You can’t kill everyone in this village.”  
Don’t underestimate me, I want to say, but I bite my tongue and calm myself. She’s just testing the waters, I’m probably suspected of knowing some forbidden jutsu and if provoked enough, I’ll just reveal my secrets. As if that would work on me.  
Pleased with herself, she dismisses us. Kakashi tells all of us to prepare for the mission – which will apparently take as many days as necessary – and we will meet one hour from now at the village gates.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
We travel the whole day and when the sun sets, Kakashi decides it’s time to set camp. That’s where Yamato intervenes; using his chakra, he creates a large wooden house, much to my surprise. So he is the one with Wood Release.  
“I know you now,” I say, approaching the wooden structure with the other. “I’ve read about that experiment.” He is the only survivor of Orochimaru’s experiment with injecting the First Hokage’s cells into children.  
Yamato turns to me and lifts his palm up, stopping me in my tracks. “You will stand guard first,” he informs me. “Shikamaru will change you after two hours.”  
“Do you know fucking close I am to throwing a hell of a temper tantrum? I want to know details about this fucking mission!”  
“Language,” Kakashi warns me. “This is an important mission, please don’t make things hard for us.”  
I snap my mouth shut, then I turn my back to them. I want to be childish and tell them I’ll just stay on the roof the whole night, as I would be happy not to see their faces until I actually have to, but then I’ll just probably prove his point of “making things harder for them”. I throw my backpack at Yamato, then I concentrate enough chakra in my feet so I can jump to the roof directly.  
Two hours later, when Shikamaru comes to the roof to replace me, yawning, I’m no longer irritated. I briefly inform him that everything is fine, then I jump down from the roof and make my way to the nearby river. I take my gloves off, splash some cold water over my face, then I untie my hair and massage my scalp. I wait a few more minutes until I say “You can come out, I’m not going to jump naked in the river, you’re waiting for nothing!”  
Kakashi’s chuckle puts a smile on my face. “Yamato thinks you are suspiciously obedient.”  
“In his dreams,” I reply, then I take my sandals off and dip my toes in the cold water. “What can you tell me about this mission?”  
“I can’t disclose the destination, but it’s both a recovery and a rescue mission. To be honest, we hope it turns out to be a rescue mission too.” He pushes his hands in his pockets and steps closer to me. He crouches next to me, then dips his fingers into the water, swirling them. He’s not wearing the forehead protector, the flak jacket and his gloves, but the mask is still on.  
I lower one of my hands into the water and I suddenly splash his face, chuckling. “Oh look, your mask is wet, you’ll just have to take it off now,” I say, gently grabbing the edge of his mask and starting to pull it off.  
He grasped my wrist, squeezing it tightly. “Behave. We’re not alone.”  
“Shikamaru is most likely sleeping and I don’t know about Yamato, but he didn’t strike me as a voyeur. You never know, though.”  
“This is not a joke…” I pull his mask off, then I press my lips against his. His arms encircle me, pulling me closer. “Sayuri,” he tries saying when I start kissing along his jawline and down his neck. Just when I’m about to bite into his neck, he looses his footing and crashes into me, causing us both to fall into the river.  
“Are you okay?” he asks me, concerned, but chuckles when he sees I’m trying hard not to laugh out loud.  
“That was so not ninja like,” I reply, grinning. “Oh baby, I’m so wet because of you,” I add and he covers his eyes and sighs.  
“You will be the death of me,” he says, then gets up and grabs my hand, helping me up as well.  
I start to take off my loose shirt, as it’s soaking wet, but he stops me “What are you doing? You’re not walking in front of Yamato in a wet bodysuit, Sayuri!”  
“Why not?” I roll my eyes. “You are being ridiculous,” I reply, trying to take my shirt off one more time.  
He stops me again. “Don’t test my patience. Go inside the house, your backpack is in the separate room. Please don’t say anything weird to Yamato. I’ll come later.”  
“Can you give me an example of a weird thing I’m not supposed to say?” I question him, grinning, as he places his hands on my shoulders and spins me in the direction of the house.  
I’m still laughing as I pick up my sandals and gloves, then I approach him and softly kiss his lips. “See you later.”  
I walk inside the wooden house, leaving a trail of water behind me. Yamato is sleeping on the floor, covered in some blankets, but he opens his eyes when I open the door and raises an eyebrow at me.  
“I’m not wet, you’re dreaming,” I tell him, then I make my way to the separate room he had created for me and close the sliding door after me.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two of the mission.

I know where we are – I’ve known for a while now. The fortress we are staring at from a considerable distance belongs to one of Orochimaru’s former associates, some guy named Hironori. The last time I heard of him, he wanted to create an army of hybrids for Orochimaru, but he wanted to make them resemble the tailed beasts, in appearance and power. I was supposed to join and help him, but when Orochimaru died, I just made different choices and I honestly even forgot about the crazy dude. I wonder if his son, Hitomu, is still alive, I got along well with him.  
Apparently, Hironori managed to create a very powerful creature using some unknown forbidden jutsu and has threatened the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire to take over his country. The Feudal Lord has asked the Hokage to handle the situation – everything has happened in the utmost secrecy – and thus a team of Anbu, accompanied by Shizune, Tsunade’s right hand woman, was sent to kill or seal this creature and arrest Hironori. Somehow, everything went to shit and no word was ever heard from them.   
This is where we come on; we’re supposed to investigate the situation, save any Leaf shinobi that might be alive and gather any useful information on how to deal with Hironori and his creature. No wonder they didn’t tell me any of this before we got there, these are people I’ve worked with before. I probably would have tried to warn Hitomu, if I’m being honest.  
“This plan sucks,” I inform my teammates, as I remove the forehead protector – this time I’m wearing it around my neck – and throw it into Shikamaru’s hands. “Don’t you have a better one?” I ask the black haired ninja.  
“It’s foolproof,” he replies, inspecting my clothes for any sign that would betray my status as a Leaf shinobi. I’m wearing a short purple kimono, with the Uchiha crest on the back surrounded by a winged black dragon and thigh high sandals. I’ve fixed my sword into the obi holding my kimono together, but I’m going to leave the weapons pouch behind, as I never used to carry one when Orochimaru would send me in his place to his associates.   
I’m leisurely braiding my hair, trying to stall, as Kakashi and Yamato are approaching me; a group of twenty or so of Yamato’s wood clones are following them, and I have to admit he’s done a pretty good job at making them look like Orochimaru’s prisoners. Shikamaru will blend among the clones and go inside the fortress with me; I have to identify Hironori, and he’ll keep the man in place with his Shadow Possession jutsu until Kakashi and Yamato get to us. The two jounins will try to find – or make – another entrance in the fortress – I’ve told them about the hidden basement – and investigate while me and Shikamaru will keep the residents busy.   
“One question. What if he already knows I’m working for the Leaf and won’t let me in? Or worse, he lets me inside and tried to take my head off?”  
“According to the information we received from the Anbu team before they were discovered, he believes that his actions will lead to others that worked for Orochimaru to join him,” Shikamaru replies, yawning.   
“You have no idea what’s inside,” I counter.  
“No, that’s what we are here to find out,” Yamato says, becoming impatient with me.  
“I know what’s inside. He’s guarded by failed experiments who can’t return to their human form, they are all stuck in the monster form of the second level of their curse mark. Those monsters are what probably killed the Anbu team.”  
“We don’t know if they are dead yet,” Kakashi tells me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Act natural, don’t raise his suspicions and try to get as much information out of him as possible before you guve Shikamaru the signal to catch him in his jutsu. Simple enough, right?”  
Sure. Simple enough. It’s the second part of the plan that worries me.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“Sayuri – sama, I was worried you had been killed too. I never would have expected you to bring me more material for the experiments.”  
I’m sitting on an armchair, with my legs crossed, as Hironori is kneeling in front of me. I missed this, being treated like royalty by Orochimaru’s associates. I look around the large room, trying not to worry about the monsters lining all the walls. I’m completely surrounded.   
“I had some issues, but you know I always take care of my problems. I’m here to help you with what you’ve been promised and I also brought with me the prisoners that weren’t killed when Sasuke raided the hideouts.”  
“Very generous of you.” Hironori raises his head and I motion for him to get up. His hair is completely white and he’s so skinny I’m amazed he can still move around.  
“Where’s Hitomi?” I ask, genuinely curious.   
He looks away for a second, then back at me. “My son died protecting me when a team of shinobi from Konoha attacked my fortress.”  
I arch an eyebrow. “Konoha attacked you? That’s impossible, they shouldn’t have known about this fortress. And how did they get past your bodyguards?”  
“And Uchiha Sasuke shouldn’t have been able to kill Orochimaru – sama,” he says, sighing. “Forgive me, Sayuri – sama, but your experiments need improving,” he adds, motioning to the monsters standing around the room. “We need to make better soldiers and protect ourselves, because I’m sure the Hidden Leaf will send more men.”  
I saw Shikamaru flinch when Hironori mentioned that the monsters were “my experiments”. Fucking old man, can’t keep his mouth shut.  
I open my mouth to ask him if he had been contacted by others – Orochimaru had lots of associates and subordinates – but my words are drowned but the sudden explosion, followed by wooden branches that break through the floor.   
Yamato and Kakashi suddenly appear on those branches, the latter holding a dark haired woman in his arms – I recognize her as Shizune. I sigh, because I don’t really like seeing her arms so tight around Kakashi’s neck, then I get up from the chair and take my sword out, infusing it with lightning chakra, and I activate my Sharingan.  
Yamato makes more branches come out of his right arm, then jumps and tries to attack Hironori. I cut those branches with my sword, then I hit the brown haired man hard with my foot, sending him across the room.   
The monsters lining the walls start moving towards the intruders, but only after Hironori bites his finger, spreads some blood over a complicated tattoo he has on his left wrist and makes some hand signs. He’s staring at me, so I decide to grab the frail old man, swing him over my shoulder and run out of the room.  
“Tell me where to go,” I order him, to snap him out of his daze. He was probably suspecting me already, but he complies and tells me the directions to his bedroom. There, he uses his blood again to open a secret passage, and we start going down a lot of stairs.  
“This is a hidden part of the basement, that’s why you don’t know about it,” he says, leading the way. The walls are lined with torches, casting eerie shadows all around us.   
Eventually, we reach an opening in the wall and he motions for me to go inside; it looks like one of Orochimaru’s laboratories, but it has only one large tube in the middle of it. The creature inside doesn’t look human anymore: its limbs are crooked in a groteque way and it has…tails. I circle the holding tube and I can’t mask the shock on my face when I recognize the one inside; it’s Hitomi.  
“You said Hitomi died protecting you.” My voice is calm, but the way I’m looking at him makes Hironori take a few steps back. He then falls to his knees in front of his, putting his forehead on the ground. “Sayuri – sama, please forgive me for suspecting you.”  
I draw some chakra from the curse mark, elongating my fangs and turning my hands into dragon claws, then I pick the old man from the ground and slam him into the nearest wall.  
“You suspected me, huh?” I bare my fangs at him as I press my face closer to his.   
“Please, forgive me,” he begs again, closing his eyes. He’s truly afraid of me and I like it.  
I suddenly remove my claws from his clothes, so he falls to the ground. I return my attention to the holding tube and point at it with my sword. “Is he ready?”  
“Not yet,” Hironori replies, not getting up. “I need to feed him more chakra. The Leaf shinobi that had attacked me the first time were not enough, but they had a medical ninja with them that will help me heal Hitomi’s body when I take him out of there. It’s good that they sent another team.”  
I nod at him, and he continues “I don’t think your prisoners will survive the fight above, but don’t worry, I have enough monsters under my control.” He pulls his sleeve up and shows me the complicated tattoo I saw earlier. “You’ll need this too, otherwise the monsters won’t listen to you. I have the scroll here, somewhere.”  
He turns his back to me and starts rummaging through some shelves, and I turn my attention to the creature inside the holding tube. Hitomi had suffered for nothing in my opinion, because judging by his appearance, I don’t think he’ll be able to move.  
I flinch as I feel a needle in my neck. Oh, fuck, I let my guard down and the old man had injected me with something.  
“I’m sorry, Sayuri – sama,” he says, taking a few steps back. “I need your chakra for Hitomi.”  
I place a palm over my neck. I don’t know what he injected me with, but it fucking hurts. However, I push past the pain and grab the sword with both of my hands. My legs are shaking a bit, but I can manage; I have a high resistance to poison.  
“Don’t bother,” he tells me. “Your friends upstairs are surely dead by now and not even you would be able to leave this place alive. Kabuto – sama had already informed me that you are working for the Leaf now. He even predicted that they would send you here. ”  
Fucking Kabuto. Of course he did. I feel my temperature rising – a good sign, it means my body is fighting against the poison. I pretend to fall on one knee, baiting him to come closer. He does, taking a weird looking dagger in his left hand. Before he can even blink, though, I raise my sword and cut his left arm, just above the seal on his wrist. Blood splatters over my face and clothes as he lets out screams of agony, but I cut them short as I grab him by the hair and force him to look into my eyes, putting him in genjutsu. That way, I don’t need to tie him up. I bind his wound, though, because I don’t want him to die from the blood loss.  
I get up – I’m still dizzy, but I’ll be fine eventually – then I pick up Hironori’s hand. It’s still holding the dagger, which looks kind of disgusting. I then make my way up the stairs, as I want to rejoin my team. As I suspected, there are still some monsters left, so I help them kill the rest.  
“Took you long enough,” Yamato comments, so I decide to toss the still bleeding hand at him. He almost drops it and I can’t help but chuckle.  
I search around the room with my eyes until I spot the silver haired man I was looking for, then I make my way over to him. Yamato follows me, asking me about the hand with a weird seal on it.  
“You okay?”   
Kakashi nods, then points to Shizune. “Can you check her? She’s unconscious.”  
“Hold this.” I give him the weird looking dagger, briefly explaining everything that had happened, as soon as Shikamaru joins us.  
“I can’t believe you cut off his hand,” Yamato murmurs, shaking his head. “Why didn’t you put him in genjutsu before you chopped his hand off?”  
I shrug, then I place my hand over Shizune’s forehead, concentrating my chakra. “You never said don’t chop his hand off. You said don’t kill him. And she’s fine, she’s just been given a sedative, I’ll wake her up in no time.”  
She wakes up in a few minutes, but immediately starts screaming– I scoff – and as soon as her eyes land on Kakashi, she throws herself into his arms, crying – I puke a little in my mouth.   
“It was horrible,” she sobs and I roll my eyes and make a face behind her back. Shikamaru sees me and starts laughing, but a look from Yamato shuts him up. The brown haired jounin then motions for us to come with him.   
“Take me to the hidden lab,” he asks me. “Shikamaru, come with us too.”  
Hold up. Is he trying to clear the room for Shizune and Kakashi? I open my mouth to complain, but he glares at me until I press my lips together tight.   
“Fine,” I reply. There’s nothing I can say anyways.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tiny bit of fluff in this chapter (obviously, after some more crazy shit involving my dear Sayuri).

After sending a report and requesting a team of Anbu, our group makes camp not very far away from the fortress. He didn’t want to risk waking Hitomi up, as he said Hironori’s words couldn’t be trusted. Better to seal the holding tube first and bring it to Konoha for further investigations. I doubt that creature will ever turn back to the Hitomi I knew, but it’s none of my concern.  
My current concern is about Shizune and why the hell is she sitting so close to Kakashi. The wooden structure Yamato has created for us is big enough for her to be sitting literally everywhere else, for fuck’s sake. For example, she should be taking care of Hironori’s hand, because she made such a fuss when she saw his stump – which, in my opinion, is a very clean cut.  
The brown haired man notices me glaring, so he clears his voice. “Sayuri, do you mind standing guard first?”  
“Yes, yes, of course,” I sigh, then I leave the house and take my place on the roof. It’s almost midnight, but I’m not sleepy, so I summon Kanda – in her small adorable form – and tell her about Hitomi.  
“Shit, girl. I always knew Hironori was messed up in the head,” she says when I’m finished.   
Her head suddenly perks up and turns in the direction of the fortress.   
“What is it?”  
“I feel chakra coming from that fortress, but it suddenly appeared. It wasn’t there a second ago.”  
I nod, then I start making my way off the roof. Kanda is a sensor type. “How many?”  
“One hundred…shit, it’s almost two hundred No, more... They are coming this way. They are similar to you when you activate your second level.”  
I thank her, then let her go back to her dimension as I swing the door open. “Two hundred monsters are coming our way.”  
Everyone is on their feet in a second and I make my way to Hironori, kneeling next to him. “Did you call them? How?”  
Kakashi grabs my arm, forcing me up. “There’s no time. We need to flee.”  
He pushes his forehead protector up, revealing his Sharingan eye, so I activate mine too.   
“They are already here,” Yamato informs us.  
We have no choice but to fight. But they are mindless creatures, they don’t go down if you don’t hit a vital spot. And they are so many. Shikamaru can pierce the bodies of two monsters at a time, but that leaves him vulnerable to attacks. Shizune can throw lots of poisoned senbon and kunai, but the monsters don’t seem too bothered by her poison. Kakashi and Yamato are fighting well together, killing as many as they can, but it’s more than two hundred mindless killing machines against five shinobi.   
What I want is to flee and I know I could do it. If I partially transform and let my wings out, I could fly away and save myself. That’s exactly what I would have done if I had been still with Orochimaru; take the thing I came here to retrieve and go, because usually my subordinates were experiments we could always recreate.  
What I don’t want to happen is for my teammates to die. Especially one of them. So when I see one of the monsters digging his claws into Kakashi’s shoulder and slashing at his flesh, I make up my mind.  
I use Chidori Nagashi, sending lightning through the monsters around me, clearing the zone a little, then I activate the Cursed Seal of Heaven and start transforming. I feel the wings forming, ripping into my kimono, and that’s when I activate the other one, the Cursed Seal of Earth. I remember the excruciating pain from the other time and brace myself for it, but when it hits, I can’t stop myself from screaming. However, I keep the transformation going, until I no longer hear human screams, but dragon roars.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
There’s sun shining over my closed eyelids. I can hear birds chirping…and I’m also moving. More like I’m being carried. My eyes flutter open and I bring my hand up to shield my eyes, but that small movement sends spikes of pain through my body.  
The person carrying me stops and softly lays me down, with my back against a tree. He gently pushes the hair away from my face and I can finally see Kakashi’s masked face.   
I remember the fight that happened the previous night; when I transform into the black dragon, it’s still me, I don’t forget what happens afterwards. I can even use my own techniques, such as Chidori or Great Fireball jutsu when I’m in that form, but at a greater scale and my speed improves. All in all, I turn into a giant ass destructive dragon. And when I transform back into a human, I’m butt naked. I inspect myself and notice that I’m wearing man clothing.   
“You scared us last night, I have to be honest.” Yamato is the first to speak. “I’ve never seen anything like it before. It looked…”  
“Extremely troublesome,” Shikamaru ended Yamato’s sentence, yawning. “I thought we were done for.”  
“I don’t lose my mind when I’m in that form, relax,” I inform them. Even talking is kind of painful, but I’m happy because I’ve improved since the last time I transformed. I can move a little, even if it hurts, I’m not completely paralyzed, like last time.  
“I never thought I’d live to see a dragon using Chidori,” Kakashi admits, patting my head. He looks proud of me and that puts a smile on my face. “Can you walk?”  
“I won’t be able to for a few days. Do you have any idea how much chakra that form consumes?”  
“We have to take Hironori and the dagger to Konoha,” Shizune intervenes, in a serious tone. “The mission has to be completed.”  
“We can’t leave a wounded comrade behind either,” Yamato replies.  
“It’s not like we can carry her to Konoha, the journey is too long for that.” Shikamaru has a point. “Captain, what’s your decision?”  
Everybody turns to Kakashi and he ponders for a while before saying “There’s a small town a few hours away from here. I’ll stay with Sayuri until she regains her strength and is able to travel, and the rest of you will take Hironori and the dagger to Konoha. I’ll summon Pakkun and send him with a message ahead to Tsunade – sama, informing her of my decision.”  
Shizune wants to complain, judging from her expression, but eventually decides to let it go.   
Me? This bitch is happy as hell! I get to spend some time alone with Kakashi.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I insisted to take a room together at a cute looking inn, it’s not like anyone knows him in this town. Kakashi was also kind enough to bring me delicious food and fresh clothes, so now I’m full and laying on my bed, wearing comfortable leggings and a soft T shirt.   
Kakashi finishes writing a message for Tsunade, then summons Pakkun, his talking ninja dog, who leaves with the small scroll in a few minutes. Then, Kakashi sits on the side of my bed, resting his chin in one of his hands. He looks delicious. His hair is still wet after the shower and he’s wearing loose black pants and a white T shirt. No mask, no gloves, no forehead protector. I lift my hand and push my fingers through his hair, then I caress the left side of his face, softly tracing his scar with my thumb. Next I place my hand on his shoulder. “I saw one of these monsters scratching your shoulder with its claws.”  
He takes my hand, then bring it to his mouth and softly kisses my fingers. I think I might just melt.  
“Shizune healed all of us, we were all wounded.” He pauses for a second. “What kind of technique was that? I heard you screaming and I wanted to come and help you, but when I saw you…”  
“I call it the third level of the curse mark. I could play the victim and put the blame on Orochimaru, but it was my idea. Even he thought it was risky. I don’t know if you noticed, but I have two curse marks, and they are the most powerful: the Cursed Seal of Heaven and the Cursed Seal of Earth. I basically activate both of them and instead of a dragon - humanoid form, I fully turn into the black dragon you all saw. I’m still sexy, even as a dragon, right?”  
He lets out a laugh, then ruffles my hair. “I can’t seem to be able to wrap my head around the fact that you’re actually terrifying. And deadly.”  
I bat my eyelashes at him and he chuckles again, then leans down to kiss me. I wrap my arms around his neck and bring him closer, deepening the kiss. What ruins the moment is that my hands are shaking. Getting dressed and holding chopsticks was probably too much for me in my current – annoying – condition. He breaks the kiss, then rests his forehead on mine for a second. He looks sad for some reason.  
“What’s wrong?” I ask, as I search his face.  
He pulls away from me and sighs. “I know we’ve had this conversation before and that it annoys you and you never let me finish, but I’ve taken this too far.” He looks me right in the eyes as he says “I’m not good for you and you must know it, even though you never say anything. I’m too old for you, Sayuri, you have to understand. The village would never look at this relationship with good eyes.”  
“Age talk, long time no see,” I reply, rolling my eyes. “I told you, I don’t care how old you are…”  
“I’m serious. Sayuri, I’m 31.”  
“Kakashi, I’m 17,” I counter, imitating his tone, but he’s not amused. “Look, you might have a point, but I’m refusing to see it. End of conversation?”  
“You might be happier with someone as young as you are. And I…”  
“Is there something going on with you and Shizune?” I ask, with no emotion in my voice.  
“What, no, where did you even get that idea,” he replies, shaking his head.   
“Then I don’t see any problem.” I grab his shoulders with my hands and use them to prop myself up. I’m trying to hide the fact that the movement was tiring, but I’m panting a little. Kakashi gathers me in his arms and brings me closer to him, resting my head on his chest. He’s holding me like I’m something precious and he’s gently caressing my back. I like it and I don’t want to fall asleep, but I’m too tired to stay awake.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smutty chapter ahead. Watching Naruto and the movie 365 days set the mood for this chapter.  
> Enjoy! ^_^

  
I wake up because I’m starving. I don’t know what time it is – daylight is enough for me – and I also can’t see Kakashi anywhere. Oh well, let’s see if my cute legs are strong enough to take me to grab something to eat.   
After a few tries, I manage to get up and stand on my two wobbly legs. I’m pretty impressed with myself. I look around for my backpack – it’s not far from my bed – and I search for a brush. I can’t go outside with my hair looking so messy now, can I?  
I pull my hair up in my usual high ponytail, then I grab some money from my backpack and walk carefully to the door, where I put my sandals on. Thankfully, the door is on the second floor, so there’s not that many stairs to go down on. As soon as I’m outside, on the street, the unmistakable smell of dango lures me to a nearby shop.  
I sit down on an empty chair – I’m not that tired as I expected – and order some dumplings are a cup of green tea. The old lady that makes and sells them tries to strike up a conversation, but laughs at me when she sees my mouth is too full of dango to answer her back.   
“Here,” she says, offering me extra dango for free. “You’re such a cute girl,” she compliments me, chuckling when I clap my hands and thank her.  
Even I can be cute sometimes. I can also make small talk with an old lady without swearing.   
I’m on my third round of dango when I suddenly hear “What are you doing outside?”  
I swallow the dumpling I’m eating, then I raise my head until I meet Kakashi’s eyes. “Stuffing my face with dango.”  
“Don’t worry, sir, I took care of your younger sister. She’s very cute and well – behaved.”  
Kakashi snorts, then gathers me in his arms. “Let’s go.”  
“Ah, my dango!”  
“Here.” The fourth skewer with dango makes its way into my hands. “Get well soon, Chieko – chan! And visit here again!”  
“Thank you, grandma!”  
“Thank you, grandma,” Kakashi mocks me.   
“Shut up. I was fucking hungry and you weren’t there. I managed somehow.”  
“Such a cute and well – behaved Chieko – chan.”  
“Shut up!” I yell, laughing. “I’m going to impale you with this skewer. Want one?”  
He shakes his head. “I don’t really like sweets. So you can walk?”  
“Barely.” I notice him staring at me and I groan “Oh, come on, don’t be a buzzkill. Let’s stay here one or two more days! Think of it like a vacation.”  
“We are in the middle of a mission. I left because the Anbu team had arrived at the fortress and I had to assist them.”  
“Did they take Hitomi away?” I ask, eating the last dumpling.   
“They’re taking him to Konoha. Tsunade – sama will probably include you in the medical team tasked with investigating him.”  
“Good to know. Let’s stay here more than two days, maybe she’ll get bored of waiting for us and start the autopsy without me.”  
“Autopsy? I never said he was dead.”  
“Sorry to break it to you, but every time my experiments looked like that, I ended their misery. As soon as they take Hitomi out of there, he’ll die. His father killed the Anbu team for nothing, no amount of chakra would turn that creature into the weapon he dreamed about. But that’s just my opinion, I’m not an expert,” I say, putting an end to the subject.  
Kakashi unlocks the door to our room, then walks with me to the bed and gently lays me down. He kneels in front of me and removes my sandals, but he doesn’t get up immediately.  
“The old woman at the dango shop assumed you were my younger sister,” he says.   
“So?” I don’t like where this is going.  
“She couldn’t fathom the idea of us as a couple.”  
“I’m going to slap the shit out of you, Kakashi.”   
“Language,” he warns me, then stands up. “I’m going back to the fortress to sweep for any remaining information. Stay here, please.”  
“I’d rather come with you. What am I supposed to do alone in here?”   
“Sleep or just relax. I want us to leave for Konoha when I get back.”  
I make puppy eyes at him and I bat my eyelashes, but to no avail. He shakes his head at me, then bends down to kiss my forehead and leaves.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
He comes back later that night with a handful of scrolls. I’m on my bed, reading a book.  
“Where did you get that?”  
“I searched through your things and found this Icha Icha Paradise little thing,” I answer, matter – of – factly. “It’s pretty good, though, kept me occupied all day.” I put the book down and look at him. “Did you find anything interesting at the fortress?”  
He shakes his head and takes the book from my hands, stuffing it deep inside his backpack. I watch him in amusement, but I decide to remain silent about this endeavor. I’ll just take it back when we reach Konoha – it really is good and I want to finish it.  
“I’ll go have a shower, please gather your things and prepare for leaving.”  
I nod, smiling. I have other plans in mind, now that I’ve heard he’s taking a shower. The sake I borrowed from the landlord might have killed some of the few remaining inhibitions I have as well.  
As soon as I hear the water running, I get up, slowly making my way to the bathroom. I take my clothes off, then I carefully open the bathroom door and without making any noise, I get inside. I slowly pull the shower curtain and join Kakashi, gently placing my hands on his lower back.  
He suddenly turns to face me and open his mouth to speak, but no words come out when he sees me naked. His eyes travel leisurely all over my body and I feel myself flush under his heavy gaze.  
It’s no use asking me what I’m doing, it’s pretty obvious. He tentatively places his hands on my hips, not knowing whether to pull me closer or keep me in place. When I arch into him and reach for his lips, he makes his decision and pulls me closer. I except his usual soft kisses, but he’s devouring my lips as his hands are roaming my back. I moan in his mouth when his hands grab onto my buttocks and squeeze tight. He pushes me against the wall, his lips bruising mine, then raises me off the ground, hooking my legs behind his back. He pushes me up against the wall until my breasts are in front of him, my nipples hard already. He closes his mouth around one of the nipples and I sigh, then moan harder when he bites on it. He licks his way to my other nipple, biting and his sucking on it until I’m panting, then pushes me up against the wall again, this time until my legs are dangling over his shoulders. I scream when I feel his tongue making its way inside of me. My fingers tangle in his hair and he licks me and I feel like ‘m burning; it feels so good I might pass out. The burning sensation intensifies until I feel like I might explode and I cry out his name as I reach the climax. He moves away from me and lets me fall into his arms, then immediately presses his lips to mine, kissing me sweetly, as he pushes me backwards out of the bathroom.  
We land on his bed, as it’s the one closer to the bathroom, still kissing; I’ve hooked my legs behind his back and he’s rubbing his rock hard erection against my slit.   
He kisses his way down my neck, then softly bites the lobe of my ear as he asks me, in a hoarse voice “Have you done this before?”  
“No, but I’ll kill you if you stop,” I reply, panting. “I need you,” I add, arching against him.  
He kisses my lips once more, then aligns his dick with my entrance and starts making his way inside of me. I push my head back, moaning both in pain and pleasure; I feel him stretching me and for a second I think he’s too big for me. He stops when he’s fully sheathed, searching my face.  
“Are you okay?” I don’t know how he can find the time to be concerned about me, I can’t even remember my own name.  
I nod, and he slowly starts moving, setting up a pace that drives me crazy. I push my nails into his back as the pain subsides and I motion for him to move faster. He bites into my neck as he rolls his hips into mine, then grabs my legs and adjusts my position so that they are resting on his shoulders now. The new angle is maddening. He thrusts into me so hard I see stars.  
After some time, he grabs my hips and turn me around, then presses soft kisses along my spine. I try to regain my breath, but then he slides inside of me again. He places both of his hands on my boobs, kneading them before pinching my nipples, making me scream again. He puts one hand on my neck next, squeezing lightly and bring me up, until my back meets his chest. His other hand goes down on my body and he starts playing with my clit, while he’s still inside of me. I push my head back and squeeze my eyes shut as I tighten around him.   
He lets go of my neck and pushes me into the bed, thrusting faster and harder. He’s close too. Wave after wave of pleasure hit me as I reach climax one more time and he grabs my hips so hard I’m sure I’ll find bruises. He pulls out of me and comes over my back, hot liquid on my skin.  
We’re both breathing heavily, but damn that was good. He gently takes me into his arm, lovingly kissing the nape of my neck. “Are you alright, Sayuri? Did I hurt you?”  
I turn to face him and press my lips to his, then place my hands on his chest and push him down on the bed, straddling him. “I’m perfectly fine. I want more.”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
We fall asleep an hour before dawn that night.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to make Shizune a rival for Sayuri. I apologize for those who really like her character because I might turn her into a bitch.

I admit, there was a tiny part of me that thought we were officially a couple now. However, the rational part of my brain and my pride made me assure Kakashi that I only wanted to have fun, no strings attached. Maybe it was my wishful thinking, but I believe he was a bit disappointed when I told him that.  
He also took my side when Shizune suggested in Tsunade’s office that maybe they should put another seal on me and never have to see my dragon form again. I assured her she was the last person I’d eat in my dragon form and that was it.   
I’ve been on lots of missions lately and I think I’m close to convincing Tsunade to remove the seal. I miss using my eyes to their full potential. Fights were much easier to win when I could use Amaterasu and I’m pissed I didn’t get a chance to learn how to use Susanoo.   
Kakashi too has been sent on so many missions that we rarely got to spend time together. We both tried, though. We were never too tired for a quickie in training building early in the morning or lazy love making at his apartment, or even late night talks on the roof of my apartment building. We also had an “accidental” date at Ramen Ichiraku (Teuchi – san is the god of ramen, I have to admit), but it got ruined by Naruto and Sakura who decided to join us.  
I’ve just come back from my latest mission and I bump into Team Kakashi getting ready to leave. I’m surprised to see Yamato with them and he informs me that Kakashi is in the hospital – he had to use Mangekyou in his latest mission.  
After giving my report, I go home, shower, change my clothes and of course decide to visit him in the hospital. I don’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions, so I summon Kanda and ask her to find Kakashi’s room. I want to sneak inside through his window.   
I’m right under his window and getting ready to jump on the sill when I hear Shizune’s voice. She sounds like she’s flirting with him. I debate between leaving and jumping inside the room to snap her neck in two, when I hear Kakashi saying “I’m sure Tsunade – sama is searching for you. I don’t want to keep you from your work.”  
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” she replies, chuckling. “I’ll come again in the evening. Can I bring you anything?”  
“I’m okay.”   
I hear shuffling as she picks up her things, then as soon as the door closes behind her, Kakashi calls my name, sighing. “It’s not what you think.”  
I graciously jump, landing on the window sill in a crouching position. “It’s none of my business, I told you, we’re just having fun,” I lie, smiling.   
“Do you really think that?”  
“Yes.” No. I’m falling in love with you and I know you’ll break my heart because you probably don’t feel the same way about me, but I’d rather suffer in silence than be rejected, thank you very much.  
“Sayuri…”  
“It’s fine. I have to go, anyways. I’ve just come back from a mission and I haven’t given my report yet.” Another lie, but I feel weird inside and I want to leave. “I hope you feel better soon!”  
He calls my name again, but I have already jumped off his window sill.   
~~~~~~~~~~  
I visit him again the next day, this time the proper way – I’m not that childish. I use the door and I bring him a basket of fruit. We hold hands and talk like nothing happened the previous day; he tells me about his mission, I tell him about mine and about Akira’s improvements at combining Sharingan with taijutsu. He’s even made a few friends at the Academy.   
However, when a nurse knocks on the door and comes inside to check up on him, I feel relieved because I can leave. I don’t know why, but I don’t feel comfortable. But when I meet with Shizune on the hallway and we stare for a second in each other’s eyes, I understand. I’m jealous. I’m jealous because she can openly flirt with him in front of everyone and no one will bat an eye, wheareas I have to hide. Not only I’m fourteen years younger than him – the age talk has finally made its way inside my head – I’m also an outcast. Shizune is a highly respected jounin in Konoha and I am someone who forced her way into the village.   
Even later that evening, when I meet Ino, Hinata and Tenten at the ramen shop, all the blonde girl can talk about how Shizune is acting really funny around Kakashi.  
“Tsunade – sama complained today that Shizune spends too much time in Kakashi’s hospital room,” she says, giggling.   
Tenten rolls her eyes. “Is there anything other than gossip in that head of yours, Ino?”  
“Oh, come on, you’re spending so much time with Neji and Lee, you’re starting to act like them. Just think about it for a second. They really make sense as a couple, right?”  
Hinata blushes and murmurs “I never thought about them like that.”  
“Sayuri, you don’t know them long, but what do you think?” Ino asks me, laughing and bringing her head closer to mine. “You’re awfully quiet.”  
“What I think is that maybe you shouldn’t make assumptions. Did Shizune say anything?”  
“She doesn’t have to say anything. It’s obvious for everyone,” the blonde girl declares.   
“What about him?” Tenten is finally interested in the subject.  
“He’ll come around. Oh, I have an idea! How about we help them?”  
I resist the urge to slam my fist into the ramen bowl and break it into a million little pieces. “I think it’s late and I’ll go,” I say, leaving money beside my unfinished ramen bowl. “I promised Iruka – san to help him with something.”  
I go straight home and drop on the bed, face first. This shit sucks.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to only briefly mention the Fourth Shinobi War, as I believe we've had enough episodes of it in the anime and I had no intention of making Sayuri a main war hero.

Our normal lives are put on hold when Akatsuki declares war on the Five Great Shinobi Countries, because they won’t give up the Nine – Tails and the Eight – Tails.   
Tsunade finally removes the seal, so I can use my abilities at full capacity during the war. I’m part of the Second Division – basically the front lines. I’m not really worried until the fight actually starts. It’s so much blood, so many screams, so many scattered limbs and mutilated bodies.   
I finally get a chance to use Susanoo –it’s so much harder than I thought to keep that form - and it’s completely black. I also use Amaterasu until my eyes bleed. I’m scared for my life.  
When I find Kakashi on the battlefield – he’s as bruised and wounded as the rest of us – I know I’m not thinking clearly. I approach him and before he can protest, I pull his mask of and I press my lips on his. It’s a desperate short kiss and I feel him responding in the same way.  
I place my hands on the sides of his face and tell him “I love you. I know it’s not a good time or place, but I wanted you to know that. I’ve loved you all this time, I think ever since I first saw you. I don’t know if we’ll see the end of this war, but I don’t want to die without telling you I love you.”  
I don’t give him time to answer. As soon as I finish, I draw enough chakra from the curse mark to grow dragon wings, then fly away from him. I join the shinobi from my division and keep on fighting.  
Sometimes during the war, Kanda tells me that she feels Orochimaru’s chakra. Everyone is too busy fighting for their lives to notice me leaving. I can’t help it, I want to see him with my own eyes. I reunite with Orochimaru at the same time with Karin, who has escaped her prison cell when she felt Sasuke’s chakra.  
“All my best experiments in one place,” Orochimaru says, smiling.  
Tsunade presses her lips together and frowns when she sees I’m with him. She doesn’t say anything, but I know what she’s thinking. The rest of the shinobi that see me in the company of Orochimaru, Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo all probably think the same thing.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
When Sasuke and Naruto finish their last fight, they’ve both lost an arm. When everything is finally over, Pakkun comes to find me. I’m happy Kakashi sent him, because he is my favorite out of his ninken – I love playing with his paws.   
So I take the dog into my arms, softly pressing on one of his paws with my thumb. I’m both nervous and excited to see Kakashi, but I’m mostly happy he’s alive. I’m exhausted and everything hurts, but I can’t help but run towards him when I see him. Pakkun jumps from my arms and disappears back to his dimension.  
I kneel beside the silver haired man and put my arms around him in a careful embrace. My heart stops for a second when I see him looking around. It was brief, but my Sharingan caught the small movement of his eyes. Then, he hugs me back, but he feels distant. Probably because he saw his best friend die in front of him again – apparently, Tobi was not Madara Uchiha, he was Obito Uchiha, Kakashi’s supposedly dead best friend. I know he’s been through shit, but there’s a tiny insecure part of me that gets offended.  
“Are you alright?” he asks me, and I nod. I’m afraid to speak, because there’s a knot in my throat and I don’t want it to turn into tears. I don’t even know why I want to cry.  
His hands are on my shoulders, but all I see is that he’s keeping me at an arm’s length.  
“Sayuri.” That’s all he says and I wait for more, but for some unknown reason, he’s silent. I’m looking into his eyes – his eyes are both normal, he’d lost his Sharingan during the war and Naruto had replaced it with a normal eye.   
He’s been silent for too long. I try to swallow past the lump in my throat and say “I’m sorry for what I said. It was the adrenaline talking.”  
I get up and want to leave, but he grabs my wrist. “You don’t understand.”  
“Probably,” I reply, shrugging. “But you’re not saying anything.”  
“I don’t know what to say.”  
I grit my teeth and clench my fists in a last attempt to stop my tears. “Then what about this? You have one month. Don’t talk to me, don’t touch me, don’t look at me. Come find me in one month. I’ll tell you if I still want you and you’ll tell me your decision.”  
I’m leaving now, one step in front of the other. He lets go of my hand and doesn’t reply and that’s when I let the tears fall down my face.  
“This is a sight I never thought I’d see.” Orochimaru’s voice stops me in my tracks and I raise my eyes to meet his. “You’re not that empty inside as I though.”  
“Apparently not. I would have been better for me, probably.” I wipe my tears away. “I’m glad you’re not dead. Can I kill Kabuto now?”  
He laughs and it makes me smile too.   
~~~~~~~~~~  
Tsunade has decided to retire and Hatake Kakashi is chosen as the Sixth Hokage. However, before retiring, Tsunade organizes chuunin exam for the war heros, or, as I like to call it, a chuunin examen especially for Naruto. Of course, anyone who is still a genin and has survived the war because of their skill (or luck) can take this written exam – no need to test the fighting skills of shinobi who survived the Fourth Shinobi War, right?  
I decide to take it as well, even though I’m not sure I’ll stay in Konoha, mostly to help Naruto learn – poor guy is hopeless when it comes to studying. So, when the exam day comes, me, Naruto and two other shinobi take it and we all pass. Tsunade officially promotes us to chuunin in her office and Shizune gives everyone a flak jacket. She arches her lips in a superior smile when she hands me the jacket and I smile back, resisting the urge to punch her in the mouth.   
I haven’t seen Kakashi since the mass funeral held for all the fallen war heroes; I didn’t speak to him, I only squeezed his hand once, then I left. To say I avoided him is an understatement – I actually did my best not to see his face.  
I’ve also spent some time with Sasuke in his prison cell; there’s no more bad blood between us – I don’t even remember why we never got on well witch each other. Kakashi vouches for him and he is released eventually from prison and decides to travel for an indefinite amount of time, in order to come to terms with his sins, as he calls him. Before he left, though, I asked him to accompany me to the Uchiha grounds, as I haven’t been able to bring myself to go in there alone.   
Everything is somewhat back to normal; everyone occupies their time mostly with rebuilding the village and getting ready for Kakashi’s appointment ceremony.  
For their actions during the war, Orochimaru and his subordinates had their past crimes removed from the records, so they are free to leave. Orochimaru retakes control of his hideouts, but he practically working for Konoha now – Yamato and other shinobi are takes with keeping an eye on the main hideout, where he stays – and I’m very tempted to join him and leave the village behind. I can’t, though. I promised him one month.  
The ceremony is in three days. In one week, that promised month ends. In one week, I think I’m leaving the village.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know in the anime Kakashi tells Naruto after the war that he'll become a jonin if he studies for two years, but I decided to change things a little in my story.

It’s my birthday tomorrow. Sakura seems to be the only one to know – she is aware only because I share my birthday with Sasuke, the love of her life, who didn’t let her accompany him on this journey, but promised to take her with him the next time.  
“Just go find him,” I tell her, rolling my eyes. “Have some wild sex in the forest.”  
Sakura chokes on her ramen and Teuchi – san and his daughter, Ayame, are trying hard to pretend they are busy and didn’t hear me.  
“Sayuri!”  
“Hey, bitches,” Ino interrupts us. “Why didn’t you invite me? What were you talking about?” she asks, sitting down next to Sakura.  
“I was telling Sakura,” I start, and the girl’s face turns red. “That we should go to an onsen during the weekend.” Sakura sighs in relief.  
“Great idea! The weekend after the ceremony would be perfect for me. I’ll go tell Tenten and Hinata. Who else should we invite, Shizune?”  
The urge to bang my head against the table is overwhelming. “How about only the five of us?” I suggest, thinking fast. “I’ll pay for everything, since tomorrow is my birthday and I was thinking we should celebrate in some way. The weekend after the ceremony is perfect for me as well.”  
“Oh, that’s right, tomorrow is Sasuke’s birthday. I always forget you’re twins.” Ino laughs, then orders some ramen. “Great idea, Sayuri.” She then slaps Sakura’s arm. “We have to buy her presents!” Ino turns her attention back to me. “Is there anything you’d really like?”  
A boyfriend for Shizune, so she would leave mine alone. I couldn’t help but hear rumors about them these past few weeks. I mentally slap myself, because Kakashi is not my boyfriend.  
“I’m sure I’ll love anything you think about,” I assure her, smiling.  
“But what do you like? We don’t know you that well,” Sakura wonders.  
“Sake, food, money, plush toys.” Sex with a silver haired annoying shinobi.  
Ino claps her hands as she receives her bowl of ramen. “No problem, Sayuri – chan. Leave it to us to buy you the perfect present. Itadakimasu!”  
We eat in silence for a few minutes, then Ino says “I heard Shizune and Kakashi – sensei had a heated discussion in the Hokage office today. Tsunade – sama has already left him in charge of documents, even though he isn’t technically Rokudaime Hokage yet.”  
“What kind of discussion?” Sakura is very interested in the subject, not like Tenten and Hinata the other day.  
“I don’t know, but isn’t it exciting? I always thought they would make a pefect couple and I wanted to help them in some way, but they will hook up in no time now that she’s his assistant.”  
“I heard Tsunade - sama will leave on a trip after the ceremony. Will Shizune not go with her?”  
“Nope,” Ino replies, grinning. “Now that Sai and me are a thing, I’m so happy I want to play Cupid for everyone!”  
Go suck Cupid’s dick, please.  
“Which reminds me.” Ino turns her attention to me. “Is there anyone in this village you have the hots for? I have to say, some dickheads said something about you and Orochimaru, but surely not…”  
“He’s my master,” I cut her off. “He’s trained me and taken care of me since I was four. That’s wrong on so many levels.”  
Sakura sighs. “People will always say shit about other people. You have no idea how many painful things they’ve said about my love for Sasuke – kun, when he was a criminal.”  
“I still think you should go find him and have wild sex in the forest.”  
“Don’t be naive, Sayuri, surely she has already done that,” Ino intervenes, pointing her chopsticks at Sakura. “The selfish bitch just won’t share details!”  
“How about you set an example, you slut?” Sakura counters, her face red again.  
“Sai and I are waiting for the perfect moment. By the way, do you think Hinata and Naruto are fucking already?”  
“Someone please seal her mouth,” Sakura yells, covering her face with her hands, and I start laughing.  
It’s all fun and games until their attention turn back to me and try to corner me to confess. I make up some lame excuse and I leave the ramen shop, then go home. On my way home, I buy some dango and a bottle of sake.  
I spend my time alone in my apartment – I drink half a bottle of sake, I eat more dango than I should and I impale my left foot with one of the skewers.  
It’s one minute past midnight when I take the skewer out of my foot and notice it’s my birthday. It’s two minutes past midnight when someone knocks on the door.  
“Come in, it’s open,” I yell. I’m still holding the skewer in one hand, the silver necklace in the other, blood is dripping from my injured foot on the floor and I have no intention of getting up.  
The door opens slowly and I come face to face with the last person I expected.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please enjoy another smutty chapter!

He’s dressed the way I like him the most: casual black pants and loose white T shirt. No mask, no gloves, no weapons, no forehead protector.  
His eyes travel my body and he frowns when he sees how short my kimono is. His expression changes when he sees my injured foot. He says nothing, he just comes inside the apartment, closes the door, then makes his way to the bathroom. When he comes back, he has some bandages and a wet cloth with him. Kakashi kneels in front of me, then grabs my injured foot and gently wipes the cloth on my skin, cleaning the blood. He wraps it in bandages, not to tight so as not to cause me pain, then throws the wet bloody cloth in the direction of the trash bin. I’ve watched his every move in amazement, because I never thought our first meeting after the promised month will be so…I don’t even know the word. It just makes me feel like we haven’t stopped seeing each other these past weeks, because it hasn’t been a month yet. Which reminds me…  
“You’re a week early. Not that I’ve counted the days or anything.” Keep talking, bitch, make a fool of yourself. I’ll just blame the sake in my system, not that it really affects me. My body has such a high resistance to poison that I can’t even get drunk properly. I’m dizzy for five minutes and that’s it.  
He chuckles and I get a sudden urge to slap him, but I don’t think it will help me too much. When he hugs my legs and rests his head on my knees, all my anger evaporates. Before I even know it, my fingers thread through his hair, tangling in it.   
“I’ve missed you more than you can imagine,” he tells and his voice is muffled by my legs.   
I tense and he raises his head. “Happy birthday, love. I probably should have started with that. And congratulations for becoming a chunin. Did you like my gift?”  
I hide the hand I’m holding the necklace in behind my back and his eyes follow my movement. “No,” I reply, trying to sound defiant, but my voice is shaking a bit. He’s never called me love before.  
“Do you still want me?” He asks, then feathers a few kisses on my left thigh.   
I press my lips together, trying to appear unaffected. I know I wanted to fight with him about something, but I can’t think when his lips are on my body. I don’t want to be an easy prey, so I think about the thing that can turn me off completely: Shizune’s smug face when she handed me the flak jacket.  
I place my right foot on his chest and push him away a bit. “It’s your fucking turn to speak this time, Kakashi. I hope you used these weeks to put your thoughts in order. What conclusion did you come to?”  
His hand closes around my foot and he squeezes it lightly. “Language. Isn’t it obvious?”  
“Nope.” I want to hear him say it, once and for all. I told him I loved him during the war and if he came here for a no strings attached type of relationship, I’m going to kick him out the door – through the door – and leave for Orochimaru’s hideout. Yeah, I’d be running home to cry in daddy’s arms, problems?!  
He’s silent. Of course he’s silent, it’s his superpower. I want to bang my head against the wall until either I pass out, or the wall breaks.  
“I’m not good with words,” he tries, but I’m not having it.  
“For fuck’s sake, just say it already!”   
I want to hear it and be done with it, because I’ve already lost all hope. It’s easy telling someone you love them, it’s hard only when you want to reject their feelings, but you still want something from them. That must be it.  
“I’ve really thought about it and I tried to be the responsible adult in this situation and put an end to this for your sake, because I really think you’d be happier with someone younger and less damaged, but…”  
He stops talking again and I growl, then I grab him by his shirt and start shaking him. “You’re killing me, I don’t even know enough swear words to express my feelings right now! Finish your fucking sentence or I will rip your tongue out.”  
The jerk starts laughing – real loud laughter, the kind that brings tears to your eyes, not just his usual chuckles. I’m going to jump off the balcony soon and everything will be over, it’s okay.  
“I even love your dirty mouth,” he says, wiping at his tears. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go. Ever. I can’t even think about you with someone else, because you have to be mine. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put into words how much I love you.”  
“I want to slap your teeth off right now. You did it on purpose, you idiot.” I’ve stopped shaking him.  
“I was seriously having an internal struggle and I was just trying to put it into words.”  
I raise an eyebrow at him. “Internal struggle. After I told you in the middle of the fucking war that I love you.”  
“Language,” he starts, but my lips are already claiming his. This man had an internal struggle. I was jealous of Shizune. Pair of idiots.  
He pushes his fingers into my hair, pulling my head back, then he deepens the kiss. I put my hands on his abs, under his shirt and I push them up, lifting his T shirt at the same time. Kakashi breaks the kiss so I can take his shirt off, then pushes me onto the bed. He spreads my thighs with his hands and seems pleased when he finds out I’m not wearing anything under my silk kimono.  
He kisses and licks my thighs, one at a time, taking his time, then suddenly sinks his teeth into the sensitive skin of my inner thigh, biting hard enough to leave a mark. He licks my slit once, then he moves to my left hip bones, pressing a soft kiss to the skin before biting there, too. I’m thrashing underneath him and pulling on his hair; all this teasing is making me crazy.  
He unties my kimono, removing it, then kisses his way up to my breasts. I hook my legs behind his back, bringing his body closer to mine and moan when his lips close around my nipple.   
When he bites the soft skin of my left boob, I scream. I cry out his name and a few unintelligible words that could be “please” and “need you now”, but he’s determined to leave marks all over my body.   
When he finally reaches my mouth, I catch his bottom lip between my teeth and bite. Hard. A growl escapes his throat and he grips my arms, pinning them on the bed above my head. He lowers his pants a little, then enters me in one swift motion, thrusting hard and fast. He buries his face in my neck, kissing and sucking and biting on the skin, leaving marks all over the right side of my neck.  
I arch against him, meeting his every thrust. “Harder,” I beg him, between moans. I’m close – very close. He lets go of my hands and I immediately place them on his shoulder blades, digging my nails into his flesh. I scream out his name when the waves of pleasure become impossibly intense and I reach my climax and he maintains the pace until he finds his release, too.  
Ten minutes later, I’m moaning and whimpering again as he presses me against the wall, pounding into me from behind, hot water pouring over us and steaming up the bathroom. He circles my body with his arms, supporting my weight, because I feel like my legs will give out any minute now.   
He turns me around, lifting me up with my back against the wall and hooks my legs behind his back before sliding inside of me again. This time he’s moving slower and sweeter, kissing my neck lovingly at the same time and whispering “I love you” in my ear.  
Best birthday ever.


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning, I wake up because I feel butterflies on my shoulder blades. I raise my head and when I see the clock – it’s 6 am – I groan and bury my head back into the pillow. I feel a huff of warm air against my skin as Kakashi chuckles between the kisses he’s planting on my shoulder blades.  
“I’m supposed to be at a meeting at 7,” he informs me, taking me into his arms.  
“Skip it. Stay here and sleep some more.”  
He laughs, then softly kisses the nape of my neck. I turn around to face him and I feel something cold on my chest – sometimes during the night, he had tied the necklace around my neck. Kakashi smiles at me, then lowers his head, kissing my lips.  
“You’ve never answered my question,” he says, brushing the hair away from my face.  
I arch an eyebrow at him and he adds “Do you still want me?” he repeats the question, but in an amused tone this time.  
I return his smile and say “I haven’t slapped your teeth off for torturing me with your silence, either.”  
A laugh escapes his mouth, then he kisses me again before getting up. “Unfortunately, I have to go get ready,” he sighs as he starts putting his pants on.  
I move to the edge of the bed, then I grip his hands. “How about I give you something to think about during the meeting?” I offer with a mischievous smile, then I push his pants back down and lower my head until my mouth closes around his dick.  
It’s 7 am when he leaves my apartment.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Later that day, I write a message for Sasuke, in which I wish him happy birthday and I also ask him to come to the village for Kakashi’s ceremony, then I summon Kanda and ask her to find my brother and give him the small scroll.  
I then decide to take Akira to a training ground and have him show me what he learned. His taijutsu has improved – Akira tells me that he has trained a few times with Lee and he used his Sharingan to copy some of the shinobi’s moves. I go easy on him when we fight, but I’m still surprised when he manages to throw the sword out my hand. Akira has gotten really good at using his own bones as weapons.  
It’s late that evening when I stop the training and take him to Ramen Ichiraku. He happily tells me stories from the Academy and about his new best friend, a boy named Hisao. That boy is from the Nara clan, a young cousin of Shikamaru’s, and Akira is greatly impressed with the Shadow Possession jutsu.  
“When do I get a curse mark?” The child suddenly asks me.  
“You don’t need a curse mark, Akira. You’ll probably surpass me, you’re strong enough.”  
His dark green eyes look sad, so I pat his head. “Orochimaru is allied with Konoha now, Akira. The curse mark is a forbidden jutsu he’s not allowed to use anymore, okay?”  
“When do I get to meet your master, Sayuri – sama?”  
“I’ll wait a few days after the ceremony and then I’ll ask the Hokage to let me go to Orochimaru’s hideout and take you with me.”  
Akira nods, then resumes eating his ramen.  
I recall an old conversation I had with Sakura, where she mentioned that Kakashi’s favorite food is salt broiled saury, so as soon as Teuchi – san brings me my second bowl of ramen, I ask “Teuchi – san, what else do you know how to cook?”  
“Anything,” he replies, grinning. “Absolutely everything you can think about, I can cook it.”  
“How about salt broiled saury?”  
He gives me a thumbs – up. “Of course. As soon as you’re done eating, I’ll let Ayame in charge of clients and you can come to the back kitchen. I’ll teach you how to make it.”  
“What, right now?”  
He nodds, grinning. “I have to admit, I didn’t now our future Hokage likes salt broiled saury.”  
I choke on my noodles and he starts laughing. “Who said anything about him?”  
“I’m an old man, I’ve seen so much in life that…” He stops, as Ayame is frowning at him. “My daughter told me after listening on your conversations with Ino and the other girls. She figured it out because of your reactions,” he admits, sighing.  
“It’s not out in the open, yet,” I tell him. “How about I promise to only eat ramen from your place and you promise to keep that to yourself for the time being?”  
“Deal,” he replies, extending his arm and shaking my hand.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I hope you haven’t eaten dinner, yet,” I tell Kakashi as I drop the wrapped package on his desk, then I go sit on the window sill behind him.  
The silver haired man stretches his back and yawns. He looks tired. “I actually haven’t eaten anything all day,” he admits. “The elders were not very happy this morning when I arrived late at the meeting.”  
I chuckle, resting my chin in my hands. “You should have told them the truth, I’m sure they would’ve understood.”  
He rolls his eyes, then starts unwrapping the package. “This smells so good. Is this…how did you know? Did you make this?”  
“Don’t get used to it,” I warn him. “Now eat.”  
He picks up the chopsticks, then starts eating. After a couple of mouthfuls, he picks a piece of the fish and extends it to me. I take it, chuckling. “Don’t worry about me, I’m full,” I say, thinking about the two ramen bowls and the three whole fish I’ve already eaten.  
Kakashi starts telling me about his day, when suddenly we hear a knock on the door. Before he can answer, though, the door opens and Shizune comes in, a stack of papers in her hand.  
“I’m sorry for disturbing you, Kakashi – sama,” she says, frowning when she spots me. “These papers are important, I’ll explain everything to you.”  
“Let him eat,” I counter, crossing my legs. Get the fuck out, I want to tell her.  
She presses her lips together, then drops the stack of documents on the desk. “I’ll come back in five minutes.”  
“Make it ten,” I reply, cracking my knuckles.  
Staring into my eyes, she suddenly bends over Kakashi’s desk and closes her mouth around the piece of fish he’s holding in his chopsticks. She then straightens her back and wipes at her lips with her thumb.  
“I’ll be back in ten minutes, Kakashi – sama,” she tells him, still staring at me, then turns around and leaves the room.  
I realize I’ve jumped off the window sill when I find myself in Kakashi’s arms; he’s holding me forcefully. “That was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen,” he laughs. “I thought she was done for. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her about her inappropiate behavior.”  
“Let me go, I want to rip her lips off,” I inform him, in an emotionless voice.  
He laughs again, the softly kisses my right cheek. “I love you,” he tells me, emphasizing the last word. “I’ll talk to her, I promise,” he adds, then picks up another set of chopsticks and resumes his meal.  
I know Shizune won’t come back until I’m out of this office and I’m aware those documents are important – I checked them – so I decide to leave when he finishes his dinner.  
“Thank you for the food, love,” Kakashi tells me, gently stroking my cheek with his knuckles and kissing me on the lips. “I’ll finish here as fast as I can. Are you going home?”  
I shrug. “How about you show me your apartment tonight?”  
He nods, then hands me his key. “I also want to talk to you about something.”  
I kiss him one more time, then I leave. As soon as I close the door behind me, Shizune starts walking towards me.  
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bother him here again. There’s a lot of work he has to do, not that I expect you to understand.” She speaks in a very serious and superior tone and I can’t help but remember her smug grin when she handed me the flak jacket the other day.  
“Did you ever fuck him?” I ask her and I actually make her blush.  
“You’re not going to intimidate me by using language like that,” she replies, looking away.  
“Well, just in case you were wondering, he fucks even better than he looks,” I settle on saying. “Now that your curiosity has been satisfied, how about you stop making a fool of yourself?” I add as I walk away from her.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I’m not shocked when I hear from Kakashi, later that night, that the elders are wondering if I should remain in the village or go back to Orochimaru, where I belong.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my story, Neji didn’t die in the war – I’ll pair him with Tenten, as I always thought they deserved a chance - and Sasuke accepts the prosthetic arm created by Tsunade using Hashirama’s cells.   
> I also based the idea of Kakashi taking pictures with Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto from this pic I found:  
> https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-67afd04011fd934b97008bbdf594c584

No official decisions could be taken until the ceremony, so I wasn’t worried about Shizune’s idea to talk to the elders and convince them it was better for the village to send me away. It’s not like Kakashi would be a spineless Hokage who would give in to their unreasonable requests.   
It’s 6 am – again, this man just won’t let me sleep – and the morning of the appointment ceremony that will be at noon, today. To say that Kakashi is nervous would be an understatement; he just can’t stay still.   
“Here, brush my hair, it will calm you,” I say, handing him my hair brush.   
He eyes me suspiciously and I look away, grinning. Kakashi just sighs, then sits on the bed behind me and starts brushing my long hair.  
The other night, when I slept at his apartment, we decided that it would be best if, instead of announcing to all our friends that we’re a couple, we should just stop trying so hard to hide it.   
I yawn and let my head fall back, until it meets his shoulder. “I forgot to tell you. This weekend I’m taking the girls to an onsen, for my late birthday party.”  
Hu hums, then puts his arms around me and softly kisses my temple. “Sayuri, what are your plans?”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Future plans,” he says, then places his hands on my shoulders and motions for me to turn around to face him.  
I shrug. “I don’t know, I think I’d like to become a jounin and have my own team of genins. I actually enjoy training Akira.” I wrap a strand of hair around my fingers, thinking. “I could give the Research Facility a go, but I don’t know…”  
Kakashi clears his voice. “What about going back to Orochimaru? I’m just asking your opinion, I’m not considering the elders’ suggestion,” he adds when he sees me flinch.  
“I would actually like going to the hideouts every once in a while to help him with his research or meet with Karin, but I want to stay here with you. I want to be able to call Konoha my home and I’m really trying, why do you think I’m going to an onsen this weekend with the other girls? I’m trying to fit in.”  
He nodds, then he cups my face with his hands for a second. After that, he brushes the hair away from my face, tucking it behind my ear.   
I grip both of his wrists, pushing his hands away from my face. “You’re acting weird.”  
He shakes his head, then puts on a fake smile and pats my head. “No, no, you’re imagining things.” He bends down to kiss my lips. “I’ll go to my apartment now, okay? I’ll see you at the ceremony.”  
“Okay, weirdo, see you later.”  
I feel like I’m missing something. What was all that talk about my future plans? I think I could force an answer out of him, but I decide against it; maybe he was just stressed about the ceremony. From then on, it’s the real deal, no more help from Tsunade, he will hold all responsibility for Konoha.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I summon Kanda in her small form when I decide to leave my apartment and let her wrap around my neck leisurely; I want her to tell me when Sasuke arrives at the village.  
I’ve asked him to contact the man who had made our katanas – they are similar to Orochimaru’s Kusanagi – and order a pair of twin swords as a present for Kakashi, as the lightning chakra works exceptionally well with this type of weapon. I also found it cute that as Sasuke and I are twins, we should gift him twin swords.  
I hope I’ll convince my stubborn brother to accept the prosthetic arm Tsunade has created for him, as Naruto is pretty happy with his.   
One hour before the ceremony, Kanda tells me that Sasuke is almost at the village, so I go the gates to wait for him.  
“This is not a funeral, you know,” I greet him, looking at the black cape he’s wearing.  
“Not a strip club, either,” he replies, throwing the swords at me. “Aren’t kimonos supposed to cover your legs?”  
I roll my eyes, then I inspect the swords; both the scabbard and the hilt have the Hatake crest on them and the blades are sharp as hell.  
“Sasuke – kun?”  
We both turn at the same time in the direction Sakura’s voice came from; she’s running towards us, her cheeks as pink as her hair.  
“Bye, love birds,” I tell them, waving as I start walking away from them. “See you at the ceremony.”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
The ceremony is short and sweet – thank all the gods above, the high heels I decided to wear are killing me. Kakashi is pleasantly surprised when he sees Sasuke – he can’t help but laugh when I drag my brother forcefully so the former Team 7 can take a picture together. Sakura and Naruto are beaming, grinning from ear to ear, so even my idiot brother graces us with a small smile. A lot of people take pictures with Rokudaime – sama, as some call him now, before it is finally my turn. After a few classic poses, where he has his arm around my waist, I decide to just be myself and kiss him one second before the picture is taken, also gripping the Hokage hat and lowering it so that our faces cannot be seen – safe to say, it’s my favorite picture.  
When the pictures are finished and I make my way over to the others, the first thing I see is Sakura extending her hand to Ino. “You lost the bet, bitch. Give me my money.” Glad to see her master didn’t only teach her medical arts and chakra control.  
Naruto is laughing, a bit embarrassed, and Sasuke has a hand covering his eyes and muttering “Why did you make me watch?”  
I watch Kakashi leave with Shikamaru, who is his right hand man, Shizune, who will be his assistant for the time being, and the council, as they probably have some meeting. Tonight, though, Kakashi and his friends will have a males only party at a restaurant they have reserved for a night of eating and drinking. I admit, the males only part was my idea, as me and the girls are supposed to go this afternoon to the onsen and I didn’t want Shizune to attend the party.   
Sakura has managed to convince Sasuke to accept the prosthetic arm, thus making him stay in the village longer to recover after the surgery. Tsunade will perform the surgery in the next couple of days, because she wants to leave on her long relaxing trip as soon as possible. So, after we come back from the onsen, Sakura can play sexy nurse for my brother as much as she wants.  
I’m finally alone at my apartment, packing my bags for a weekend away at the onsen; as much as I like spending time with Kakashi, I’m aware that I have to befriend the other – might as well start with the girls, as they were always nice with me.  
A knock on my door startles me, even though I kind of expected him to visit me before I leave. I open the door, a surprised laugh escaping my lips when I see his masked face. “Are you going to the party with your mask on? It’s bad enough that you wore it during the ceremony,” I tell him, motioning for him to come in.  
“Habit,” he replies, then pulls it off. “Getting ready to leave?”  
I nod, then I grab the bag of clothes from the bed and throw it on a chair. I plop down on the bed and he sits next to me, gently placing his hand on my knee. He’s still acting weird, just like this morning.  
“Are you okay? You’re weird again and the ceremony is over.”  
He says nothing, so I ask “Did you like the twin swords from the Uchiha twins?”  
Kakashi nods, the corners of his mouth arching in a small smile. “Thank you to both of you.”  
I’m very close to asking what his fucking problem is, when he takes my right hand, gently caressing the sensitive skin on my wrist. A second later, he puts a silver bracelet on my hand and when he snaps it shut, I can see a snake swallowing its tail.   
“Do you know what this is?”  
“Yes,” I reply, lifting my hand and looking at the bracelet. “It’s the ouroboros, an emblem of wholeness…” My eyes widen. “…and infinity.” I finish my sentence, then look up at him. “Kakashi?”  
He takes a deep breath, then grabs my right hand again and softly kisses my knuckles. “Know that I love you more than anything and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I know you want to become a jounin and train your own team and I respect that. I’ll wait for you until you’re ready. It’s just that, as long as you wear that, I’ll know I can still hope for a positive answer.”  
I’m speechless and that rarely happens. I replay his words in my head, making sure I understood everything. “Did you just propose to me without expecting an answer?”  
“I don’t want to rush into things. Think of it like more of a promise, than a proposal.”  
His previous behavior suddenly makes sense.   
“I love you and you know it. I also won’t pretend to understand the way that brain of yours works, but okay,” I reply, chuckling. “But I promise to wear this bracelet and keep loving you.”  
I hope I said the right thing and when he smiles, pulls me into his arm and kisses me, I know I did.


	20. Chapter 20

“You little whore,” Ino accuses me as soon as I step inside the hot water. “How long have you and Kakashi – sensei been together?”  
“Eh, not long.” Kinda ever since I came to the village.  
“You’re not very good at playing Cupid, Ino – pig,” Sakura tells her, laughing. “I told you there’s something going on with them, Sayuri always had a murderous look on her face when you mentioned what a great couple Shizune – senpai and Kakashi – sensei would make.”  
“Before or after the war?” Ino still won’t let me go off easily.  
“Before,” I reply.  
Tenten extends her arm to me, for a high – five, then sticks out her tongue at the blonde girl. “See? You’re all talk and that’s it. The quiet girls have had boyfriends longer than you.”  
Hinata bawls her eyes out. “Don’t tell me…”  
Sakura chuckles. “Speaking of him, how’s Neji?”  
Tenten sighs, covering her face with her hand. “He’s pissed we could only do some light training after he was discharged from the hospital.”  
I hum, arching an eyebrow at her and she slaps some water in my face. “I’m not drunk enough to share details.”  
Ino claps her hands, grabbing our attention. “I propose a drinking game. But first, can we all own up to the fact that we’re fucking our boyfriends?”  
No one protests – Hinata’s face goes impossibly red, but still, she remains quiet.  
The blonde girl smiles. “Perfect. Now, we’ll each make an assumption about someone else and drink if we’re wrong. However, if we are right, the other person drinks.”  
“When does the game stop?” Hinata asks, concerned.  
“How about we do that when we eat?” I offer. “I’ve ordered a massive amount of food that’s not going to eat itself.”  
The girls all nod in agreement, so after we soak some more in the hot water, we all put on robes and make our way to the dining room. The table is overflowing with seafood and other delicious things, but before they dig in, the girls offer me their gifts: a new set of kunai, a set of four Icha Icha books, a beautifully ornate bottle of sake and a huge plush purple toy snake that looks a lot like Manda.  
“I’ll go first,” Ino declares, after I finish thanking them for the gifts. “Sakura, is it true that Sasuke talks dirty to you?”  
The pink haired girl blushes, sighs, then picks up her glass and drinks. It’s her turn now. “Sayuri, is it true that Kakashi – sensei…oh God, I can’t believe I’m saying this about him…is it true that he prefers you on top?”  
I stuck out my tongue at her. “Wrong. Drink up.” I turn my attention to the brown haired kunoichi. “Tenten, is it true that Neji likes to tie you up?”  
The girl goes silent for a second. “How the fuck did you know?”  
“I didn’t, he just seemed like the type,” I reply, laughing and she drinks.  
Finally, it’s Hinata’s turn. “Hinata,” Tenten starts, her voice evil. “Does Naruto use his Shadow clones in the bedroom?”  
Hinata looks like she’s about to faint but, true to the game, she picks up her glass and after hesitating a lot, she drinks. “Ino…is it true that…Sai – kun…uhm…” She closes her eyes shut and whispers “spanks you?”  
Ino grins and confidently denies. “Nope, but I’m curious how it feels, now that you’ve mentioned it. Now drink.”  
The game continues for a while, as we’re all laughing until tears streak down our faces. At some point, though, Ino, Sakura and Hinata can’t speak properly, so it’s up to me and Tenten – who can hold her liquor – to put them to bed.  
We’re also the first ones to get up in the morning and go into the hot water. We soak for a long time until the other three show up, complaining about their headaches.  
“No more drinking games with you two monsters,” Ino declares. “I don’t even remember the things I’ve said.”  
“Don’t speak so loud, Ino – pig,” Sakura growls. “My head hurts.”  
When the night comes, though, we start drinking again.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I’ve had more fun that I thought,” I admit to Kakashi as I push away the documents he was reading and sit on his desk. “I’ve learned so much about these girls’ boyfriends that I don’t think I’ll be able to look them in the eyes for a while, to be honest,” I add, laughing.  
He smiles, shaking his head. “I’m glad you had a good time.”  
“Did you have fun at your party?”  
“No one remembers how the party ended, so I guess we all had a good time,” he replies and I chuckle. “I missed you.”  
“Not as much as I’ve missed you,” I say, half closing my eyes. I grab the edge of his mask and slowly pull it down on his face.  
He gets up from his chair, then pushes me on my back on the desk and places his hands on my abdomen. He pushes his palms up on my body until he settles them on my breasts, squeezing them both hard at the same time. Kakashi then lowers his head and starts kissing my exposed abdomen, and I push my head back, moaning. I suddenly stop and tense as I can see an upside down annoyed Shizune looking right at me. Kakashi removes his hands from under my shirt, then steps away from me and I sit back up, sighing.  
The brunette clears her voice as she says “I came to pick up the reports you were supposed to sign, Kakashi – sama. The door was unlocked.”  
“I haven’t finished them,” he mutters, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  
“Obviously,” Shizune snaps, then clears her voice again. “May I escort Sayuri out so you can finish your work? After all, you are the Hokage, this whole village is depending on you, Rokudaime – sama.”  
Oh for fuck’s sake, I think. I’m about to intervene, when Kakashi says “I don’t appreciate your condescending tone, Shizune. Please knock the next time.”  
One of her eyes twiches as she briefly apologizes, then turns on her heels and leaves the office, slamming the door behind her.  
Kakashi brushes a hand through his hair, sighing. “That was uncomfortable.”  
“Eh, she knows you need her help, that’s why she’s acting like this.” I wave my hand. “Next time I’ll just lock the door, I was careless.” I jump down from the desk, then I approach him and extend my hand to him, palm up. “Keys. I’ll sleep at your place tonight.”  
Kakashi shakes his head. “No,” he tells me. “We’ll leave together, I’ll just finish these documents and call it a day.”  
“Ok, then, I’ll just stay here and read,” I reply, waving Icha Icha Paradise at his as I make my way to the window sill.  
Later, when Shizune comes to pick up the documents and he politely asks her if there’s more, her jaw is tense when she says no.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
He slams me into the door as soon as we’re inside his apartment, his mouth devouring mine, his hands already pushing my shirt up. I tangle my fingers in his hair, pulling on it and angling his head so that I can lick at his neck and bite on his ear lobe.  
Kakashi places his hands on my waist, lifting me up until I circle his body with my legs, then walks in the direction of the bed. He drops me on the bed as we pull at each other’s clothes and we’re not fully undressed when he slides inside of me.  
A loud moan escapes my lips as he thrusts hard, his arms around my head, his face buried in my neck. Then, he moves away from me for a second, gripping one of my legs and turning me around. He grabs my hair with one hand, pulling on it hard as he enters me again. He thrusts into me so hard that my vision goes blurry for a second and I scream out his name. His other hand grips my hip, the fingers digging into my flesh.  
My moans become louder and he growls as he pulls me up by the hair; my back is pressed against his chest and he kisses my neck softly, murmuring into my ear how much he missed me. His hand moves from my hip to my lower abdomen, then he starts rubbing lazy circles around my clit with his middle finger. My whole body tenses and I feel my walls clenching around his dick as I reach my orgasm. He wraps his arms around my body, keeping me in place as he keeps up the pace until he finds his own release, spilling hot liquid on my lower back.  
Kakashi collapses on the bed, still holding me. I’m still breathing heavily when I sneak out of his arms, then I straddle him, slowly moving on top of him. I place my palms on his chest, then I arch my fingers, digging my nails into his flesh. I bend down to kiss him, then I capture his bottom lip between my teeth and bite. A low moan escapes his throat and he places his hands on my hips, gripping hard.  
I move my head away before he can bite me back, then I take his hands and place them on my tits; he’s hard again, so I push a hand between us, guiding his inside. I roll my hips on top of him, increasing the speed when he starts kneading on my breasts. I whimper when he pinches my nipples.  
He adjusts our position, circling my waist with his arms and reaching up to lick and bite at my breasts. I push my head back, moaning loudly as his mouth closes around one of my nipples. He keeps biting and sucking on my nipples until I have my orgasm, then buries his face into my neck as he reaches his climax, his moans muffled by my skin.  
I let my head drop on his shoulder and Kakashi lays back on the bed with me still on top of him. He softly kisses my temple as he wraps his arms around me tight.  
“Shower?” he asks me.  
“Bath,” I reply.  
We splash water all over the bathroom during round three.


	21. Chapter 21

I wake up because I’m too close to the fire and I’m feeling too warm to be comfortable. When I try to get up, though, I feel a sharp pain in my left side.   
“Don’t move too much or the wound will reopen.”  
When I turn my head in the direction the voice came from and I see the grotesque monster approaching me, I immediately scramble to my feet, ignoring the pain. Because I can’t find my sword, I begin to draw chakra from the curse mark and activate my Sharingan at the same time.   
The creature raises its crooked arms slowly and comes closer to the fire, so I can see its face.  
“Sayuri, it’s me, Hitomi. Please, sit down. You’re badly injured.”  
“Hitomi?” I stare at his face for a few seconds before I recognize him. “What are you doing here? How are you even alive?”  
I remember the mission where me, Kakashi, Yamato and Shikamaru saved Shizune, took Hironori prisoner – he killed himself in Konoha the moment he was left unsupervised – and recovered the tube holding Hitomi after his father experimented on him and turned him into a monster with five tails. I take in his appearance, the five rattlesnake tails constantly moving, his crooked arms and legs and the swollen dark veins covering his entire body.  
He approaches me slowly and, when he’s certain I’m not going to attack him, gently grabs my hands and motions for me to sit down next to the fire. Then, he begins to remove the now bloody bandages, revealing a deep ugly wound.  
“I escaped the moment they opened the holding tube,” he explains as he wraps clean bandages around my body. “They covered the incident because they probably thought I couldn’t survive for long. They were wrong.”  
“Why am I here? And what is this place?” I ask, then I push my fingers through my hair. I stop in shock when I finally notice how short my hair is and how rough the tips are.   
Hitomi spreads his arms. “I wanted this cave to become my grave, but I couldn’t stay away when I heard an explosion. I found you near the river, badly burned and bleeding heavily into the water.”  
He suddenly starts coughing up blood and doubles over, wrapping his arms around his own body. “I used the remaining chakra I had to heal everything I could.”  
I place a hand on his shoulder. “You saved me. Thank you.”  
Hitomi straightens his body, but I can see on his face how painful it is. “Burn me with Amaterasu. Make me disappear.”  
I nod, then I bend my head to him. “Do you have any idea what I was doing here or what happened to me?”  
Hitomi doesn’t respond to my question, but hands me something. It’s the same weird looking dagger Hironori was holding before I cut his hand off.  
“This dagger absorbs the chakra of the people you stab them with. That’s how I stayed alive all these months.” He smiles, but his eyes are sad. “I despised myself and I always thought one more person and that’s it, I’ll wait for death to take me now, but I was a coward. I was afraid of dying.” He stops for a few seconds, then says “I’ve always loved you. That’s why I want you to kill me. I will not be able to stop myself from attacking people and killing them for their chakra, no matter how much I hate myself. I’m weak.”  
I activate my Mangekyou Sharingan and stare at him, not saying anything. He’s making me really uncomfortable with his speech, but these are his last words.  
“I sensed a huge chakra moving rapidly away from my location when I found you,” he explains and I nod. I remember now that Hitomi was a sensor type among other things. “I believe that was your opponent, so I case you’re attacked again, use the dagger.”  
Hitomi takes a deep breath, then closes his eyes. “I’m ready.”  
A second later, he’s engulfed in black flames and it doesn’t take long until he completely vanishes.  
The Amaterasu I used on Hitomi consumed a lot chakra, leaving me unable to summon Kanda so she can carry me. After searching the cave, I finally found my sword and a black long cape that probably belonged to Hitomi.  
I’m tired and my wound hurts, but I’ve been in worse situations before. I’ll just find the nearest village or town as ask the people there for food and a place to sleep. The plan is to find out where the hell I am – hopefully not far from Konoha.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It’s barely 4 in the morning when I abruptly wake up from a dream. I’m confused for a few seconds, then I remember the old couple that let me into their home the previous night.   
In my dream, I was fighting a man resembling the Raikage, but I somehow knew it wasn’t him, even though he had similar abilities to the former Supreme Leader from the war. I was fighting using only my sword and taijutsu moves, for some reason.  
I place a hand on my neck, remembering a cold metal collar having been around it. I close my eyes, concentrating on my memories. I remember volunteering for an important mission…I remember attending a Kage meeting – it was held in Kumogakure, at the request of the Raikage – disguised as an Anbu shinobi, but upon discovering my identity, the Raikage had grabbed me by the neck and slammed me against the table. I also recall him yelling something about a man attacking him in Kumogakure, someone who could use black flames, thus the only people on his suspect list being the Uchiha twins.  
I smile as I remember Kakashi saying that I was in Konoha during the time of attack and that even though Sasuke was away from the village, he can vouch for him. The important mission I volunteered for was discovering who was the assailant, in order to clear the Uchiha name. The Raikage also requested that Sasuke had to stay in Konoha until the so called real assailant is found and Kakashi had no choice but to agree. The rest of my memory is blurry, I don’t remember the explosion Hitomi told me about at all, but somehow my investigations had taken me from Kumogakure back to the Land of Fire.   
Not being able to go back to sleep, I throw the covers away and get up. I decide to go to the bathroom and have a good look at my hair, as I was too tired to do it the previous night, when I first arrived at this house. I take a deep breath, then I look at myself in the mirror. There are uneven strands of hair and the edges feel crisp to the touch; the only explanation is that it caught on fire during the explosion Hitomi had mentioned.  
I search the bathroom until I find a pair of scissors, then I start cutting my hair and I refuse to let the tears that are filling my eyes fall. “It’s just hair, it will grow back,” I whisper to myself. When I’m finished, my hair is barely reaching my collarbones. I’m also sad because I don’t have the silver ouroboros bracelet around my wrist, I probably lost it during the fight.  
A few hours later, when I’m having breakfast with the old couple that took me in, I mention the description of the man I was fighting in my dream. To my surprise, the old lady nods and tells me “A man matching that description came to our village. He was so badly injured we thought he wouldn’t make it through the night. He had huge claw marks all over his body.”   
I nod, motioning for her to continue. I probably used the second level and got him good if he had claw marks all over him.  
“This happened a week ago, though,” she continues and my mouth drops. Hitomi never mentioned I was unconscious for so long.  
“Do you have any idea where he went?” I ask.  
“He didn’t say, but he had barely left the village when you came knocking on our door,” the old woman answers, smiling.  
I thank them for their hospitality and, five minutes later, I’m outside their house. My chakra has recovered enough, so I summon Kanda and ask her to search for a man with a huge chakra, as Hitomi had described it. He won’t escape me, this time.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I’m sitting on a rock, panting, with one hand placed over my left side. I’ve had a hard time, because somehow, my opponent had some of the Hachibi’s chakra inside of him and could partially transform. I’ve heard a similar story from Kakashi about a boy that had some of the Kyuubi’s chakra sealed inside of him and that he gave Naruto a hard time when they fought.  
I slowly open my eyes and stare at the huge muscled man sprawled in front of me, unmoving. After a long and exhausting fight, I managed to finally put him under genjutsu and drive the dagger Hitomi had given me into his back. The fucker knew how to fight a Sharingan user, he was constantly looking at my feet. I also couldn’t risk using Amaterasu or the third level of the curse mark, because I had to take him alive.  
“Took you long enough,” Kanda tells me when I summon her.   
I jump on her head and motion for her to take the man into her jaws. If this mission doesn’t make a jounin, I don’t know what will.


	22. Chapter 22

It’s the middle of the night when I reach Konoha. I’m in front of the Hokage Residence when I jump down from Kanda’s head and she drops my prisoner from her jaws. A very shocked Izumo had told me that I can find the Hokage in a meeting with the council.  
I sigh, then grab the man’s shirt and start dragging him behind me as I make my way to the conference room. A couple of Anbu shinobi stop me at the double doors of the conference room, much to my surprise.  
“The Hokage ordered that no one should go inside during the meeting,” one of them tells me.  
I roll my eyes, then push past him. “He’ll want to see me,” I reply, then I kick the doors open and make my way inside. I haul the unconscious man up, throwing him on the table.  
I like doing outrageous shit from time to time, but I honestly didn’t expect Kakashi to look so shocked when he sees me. In fact, every member of the council is looking at me like I’m naked or something. I just threw an unconscious man on their table, for fuck’s sake! It’s not even that outrageous.  
I clear my voice and open my mouth to say something, but I never to get to speak, as Kakashi jumps from his chair and wraps his arms around me, knocking the air out of me.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I’ve apparently been gone for over a month. Sometimes during this month, someone had send Kakashi a package with a badly burned hand that had my silver bracelet on it and he had expected the worst. None of the many Anbu teams that had been sent to find me got any leads.   
Kakashi has moved in the private rooms of the Hokage Residence during my absence, after Tsunade had left. I’ve taken a long shower, I’ve received medical treatment and now I’m sitting on his bed, eating dango, drinking green tea and waiting for Kakashi to come back.   
He had some shinobi take my prisoner to an interrogation room, then summoned Ino and her team to search his mind, before taking me to his private rooms. They have called him not long ago, probably to report their findings.   
I finish the dumplings and the tea, then I lay down on the bed, closing my eyes. I’ve almost fallen asleep when the door opens and Kakashi comes inside. I stretch my arms and get up in a sitting position, wincing when the wound in my side sends a spike a pain through me.  
The silver haired shinobi sits on the bed next to me, then pulls me into his arms, softly kissing my temple.   
“I’m sorry I couldn’t find you,” he apologizes and his voice is rough. He takes my right arm and softly kisses my wrist. “When I received your bracelet on a chopped hand, I thought…”  
“I’m not angry with you,” I interrupt him. “I still can’t believe I’ve been gone for a month. Can we have Ino look into my mind?”  
He nods, then takes the silver ouroboros bracelet out of his pocket and I smile, extending my right hand to him. “I thought I’d lost it.”  
Kakashi puts the bracelet on my wrist, then brushes his fingers through my now short hair. I tell him about Hitomi and the explosion he mentioned and how the tips of my hair were burnt.  
“The man you caught is a councilman of the Raikage, one who disappeared during the attack on the Raikage and they presumed him dead. He and some other shinobi had planned to kill the Raikage and take over his place. Shikamaru guessed that the black flames the Raikage talked about were actually normal flames combined with a powerful genjutsu that made everyone see them black. They apparently wanted to put the blame on Sasuke and start a war with the Land of Fire as well.”  
“He could partially transfom into the Hachibi when I fought him,” I inform Kakashi and he nods.   
“There are nine people in his group, they are the new Akatsuki,” he replies, sighing. “Ino will dig deeper into his mind in order to find the other eight. They probably have absorbed the chakra from all the nine tailed beasts during the war, but we don’t know that yet, it’s just a supposition at the moment. I’ll request a new Kage meeting when I have all the information.”  
I nod, then I place my hands in his neck, gently rubbing my thumbs across his jawline. “You look exhausted,” I tell him.  
“I couldn’t sleep.”  
I raise my head until my lips meet his. All this time we’ve talked, he didn’t stop touching me, caressing me, making sure I’m really here and I’m actually fine. I know he feels guilty because he didn’t save me, but I don’t blame him. When I lived with Orochimaru, people went missing during missions all the time. Some came back, some didn’t.   
Kakashi kisses me back, then buries his face into my neck and wraps his arms around me, careful not to hurt me. Then, he slowly lays on his back, with me on top of him. I adjust my position, placing my head on his chest and I fall asleep listening to his heartbeat.


	23. Chapter 23

I don’t sleep for too long before I wake up, chocking on air and coughing. I get up, my hands gripping my neck as I try regaining my breath. I feel Kakashi’s hand on my back as he wakes up, too.  
“I’m fine,” I tell him as soon as I can breathe normally. “Just a bad dream.”  
He hugs me from behind, resting his chin on the top of my head. “Tell me about it?”  
“I don’t remember it,” I lie and before he can reply, we hear a knock on the door and a man’s voice saying “Hokage – sama, Ino and the others have finished analyzing the prisoner’s mind.”  
I decide to get dressed as well and accompany Kakashi to the interrogation room where they’re keeping him.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Long story short, the new cult like Akatsuki members, nine members, each going by the name of the Tailed Beast of the chakra they’d absorbed, managed to capture me when I found their hideout by putting a collar on my neck that would prevent me from using chakra. They kept me unconscious for a long time by constantly injecting my body with poison and drugs before they found a purpose for me and started experimenting on me. Their purpose was to erase my mind, thus making it easier to control me, and send me to assassinate the Raikage. During the experiment, they miscalculated the dose and injected too much poison in my body, thus stopping my heart. Believing I was important for their plan, they intubated me – that’s exactly what I dreamed about before I abruptly woke up chocking earlier – thus bringing me back. However, as soon as I opened my eyes, both the curse marks had activated as well. Two of the cult members, Hachibi and Yonbi, stayed behind to fight me while the others escaped the hideout. The last memories Hachibi has from that night is that the hideout exploded with Yonbi and myself still inside. Badly wounded, he had taken refuge in a nearby village – the same I’d stayed in.  
We already know the rest from Hitomi and from what I told them after I woke up in that cave, but Kakashi believes that Ino and her team should also search my mind, as it’s important to find out if the Yonbi managed to escape the explosion or not. Meanwhile, he forms teams of jounins and Anbu shinobi, sending them to hunt for the cult members that have escaped that night.  
It doesn’t take long for Ino and her team to search through my mind, because I’m not resisting them. What shocks them is when they see me completely transformed in the black dragon and ripping apart a partially transformed Yonbi who decides to use his remaining chakra to blow himself and the hideout up. Because I’m in my dragon form, I survive the explosion and manage to drag my wounded body to a nearby river. The last thing they see before I pass out is a deformed Hitomi finding me and driving his dagger into my side. So when he first found me, he only wanted to steal my chakra, but somehow changed his mind and decided to save me. It doesn’t really matter anymore, I’ve already killed him with Amaterasu.  
After completing their report, Ino – who can’t seem to be able to look at me after seeing me tearing Yonbi limb from limb – and her team leave me and Kakashi alone in the interrogation room.  
“Well, I may have been careless in the beginning, but it’s a good thing that I’ve taken down two cult members, right?” I say, laughing.  
“You almost got yourself killed,” Kakashi growls at me. He looks really angry. “You want to be a jounin responsible for a team of genins? You’re just going to get them killed.”  
I frown and fold my arms over my chest. “I didn’t expect a lecture, to be honest.”  
“If they managed to successfully turn you into their personal assassin and used you to kill the Raikage, there would have been war between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire.”  
Shizune is standing in the door frame, a report in her hands.   
“Look, can you get out? This is a private conversation,” I snap at her, but Kakashi places a hand on my shoulder.  
“She has a point, Sayuri.”  
I slap his hand away. “It didn’t happen, so can you fucking stop? I actually regret volunteering for this mission, I should’ve just stayed back and watch you struggle.”  
“You did it because you thought it was the shortcut to becoming a jounin and your arrogance almost cost us another war,” Shizune replies, smiling at me.  
“One more word from you and I’ll rip your tongue out,” I warn her, then push her out of the way and leave the interrogation room. I never thought the day when Kakashi would side with Shizune against me would come.   
I feel hurt and betrayed; yes, I want to become a jounin and yes, shit would’ve hit the fan if the cult members had succeeded in their experiment and okay, I was careless, I shouldn’t have let myself get caught. But I’m here now, I’ve killed one cult member, I’ve captured another and they have all the information they need to hunt the rest. So what’s their fucking problem?


	24. Chapter 24

“If you’re here to lecture me, don’t bother,” I tell Naruto as he sits beside me at the ramen shop.  
“Teuchi-san, the usual please.”  
We eat in silence for a while, before Naruto finally clears his voice. “Care to tell me why you’re so upset?”  
I shrug, ordering a second bowl of ramen. “I’m not upset. I don’t understand what I did wrong.”  
“I don’t think you understand what Kakashi – sensei has been through this past month. What he wanted to do was drop everything and go searching for you himself. However, he had to stay in the village and deal with both the pressure the Raikage put on him and all the different opinions the councilmen had of your actions. You just went on a mission and didn’t send reports back, you basically disappeared. He blamed himself for not sending a team with you. Everyone had their eyes on him so he couldn’t even afford to worry about you publicly.”  
I rest my chin in my hand, turning my head to face Naruto. “I didn’t expect him to drop everything and come looking for me. I handled everything and eventually came back, so I don’t appreciate Shizune accusing me of almost causing a war between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.”  
“Shizune – san just worries about the village.”  
I scoff. “I’ll drop this ramen bowl in your head if you take her side, too.”  
Naruto raises his hands, laughing. “Please don’t, it’s sizzling hot. I’m not taking her side, I’m just asking you to think about what it would’ve happened if everything went south and try to improve your way of doing things.”  
I sigh, smiling at him. “When did you become so wise?”  
He chuckles, a bit embarrassed and we resume eating for a while before he says “Sasuke told me he felt it when your heart stopped. We were training together when he suddenly stopped moving and clutched at his chest. ”  
“It’s a twin thing,” I reply. “When Itachi put him in Tsukuyomi years ago, it affected me too.”  
“We obviously didn’t say anything to Kakashi, he was stressed enough,” he continues and I feel a pang of guilt.  
Later the same day I meet with Sasuke. He’s leaving the village again, now that there’s proof he didn’t attack the Raikage.  
“I wouldn’t have cried if you had kicked the bucket,” he informs me as he hugs me briefly.  
“Did you get used to the new arm?” I ask him, laughing.  
He shrugs, unimpressed. “Could have lived without it,” he replies, waving said arm at me as he’s walking away from the the village gates.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It’s late in the evening when I drop a wrapped package – sesame soba noodles this time – on Kakashi’s desk. “I’m not going to bother you, I’ll just leave this here,” I tell him, pouting.  
He sighs, then pushes the document he was reading away. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”  
I’m tempted to bring into discussion how he took Shizune’s side this morning, but I bite my tongue. I remember what Naruto told me about Kakashi being under pressure because of my absence. “I’m not mature enough to admit I deserved it,” I reply, swirling a wisp of hair on my fingers and rubbing the tip of hair between my thumb and index finger.  
Kakashi shakes his head at me. “I’ve lost a lot of people close to me over the years. I don’t think I can handle losing you, too.”  
I look away as I feel the pang of guilt again, then I walk around the desk and sit on his lap, wrapping my arms around him tight. “I’m here now. I’m sorry.”  
He leans back on his chair, then circles my body with his arms, pulling me closer to him and kissing the top of my head. “The Raikage had recommended you to be appointed jonin, as a way of apologizing for the wrong accusations.”  
I snort. “Are you expecting me to be a responsible adult and refuse?”  
He softly laughs into my hair, then places his hand on the nape of my neck, gently squeezing it. “No, but there have to be enough jonin and council members who agree. However, another Kage’s recommendation carries great weight.”  
“Okay, I’ll wait patiently,” I reply, then I try to get up, but he tightens his grip around me. “What are you doing?”  
“I’ll work like this tonight,” he says, then picks up the document he was reading when I first came in.  
“Weirdo,” I tell him, but he doesn’t respond, he just smiles.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sayuri is finally a jonin and the Hokage assigns a team of genins to her.

Six months have passed since the cult Akatsuki members have all been killed and the crisis has been averted. Kakashi had sent me on a few missions, testing my leadership and tactician skills before finally appointing me jonin. I’ve been on my best behavior these past months, trying to prove to everyone that Kakashi wasn’t wrong making me a jonin.  
Today is also the Academy Graduation day; me and Neji have been called to the Hokage’s office, where Kakashi had officially informed us that starting today, we’ll be responsible for our own teams. He then gave us each an envelope with information about the students.  
So now I’m sitting on the branch of a large tree, situated in the middle of an empty training ground. I’m a bit early; in ten minutes, three genins are supposed to come meet their new sensei. I’m wearing tight black pants and a grey shirt under the flak jacket and I’ve tied my hair up in a bun. I finally open the envelope and I start reading about my future students.  
I smile as I read the name Kaguya Akira. I already knew Akira is one of the six students that graduated this year, making him the youngest; he’s grown a lot since I brought him in Konoha, thus looking like he’s seven or eight years old, even though he’s technically five. I’m happy he’s going to be on my team.  
The second one is Nara Hisao, I remember his name from Akira’s stories, they are best friends. The third name is female, Yuki Hatsumomo. I’ve heard about the Yuki Clan, their bloodline limit is using ice as an element. Hatsumomo and Hisao are both eleven years old.  
I put the envelope away as I hear three pairs of footsteps approaching the tree. I jump down from the branch right in front of the three black haired kids that will become my new team – if they pass the test I’ll give them.  
Akira beams at me and I return his smile, then look at the other two. Hatsumomo has a dark gloomy air around herself and she eyes me suspiciously, nervously tugging at her long dark chestnut hair, whereas Hisao reminds me of Shikamaru, though with a less lazy attitude.  
“My name is Uchiha Sayuri. I’m not going to congratulate you all for graduating the Academy, because if you don’t pass today’s test, I’ll just send you back.”  
Akira looks at me with serious, yet confident eyes; he knows what he’s capable of, but at the same time, also knows my abilities. Hisao brushes his fingers through his hair, suddenly worried, but Hatsumomo folds her arms over her chest.  
“Are you even allowed to do that? No one told us anything about a new test.”  
I stare at her, chuckling. “I’ve just told you now. But before that, I’d like you all to introduce yourselves.”  
“Didn’t you read our files?” she counters.  
“Pretend I didn’t do that. You start,” I reply, still looking at her.  
The girl sighs. “My name is Yuki Hatsumomo and, as you probably already know, I’m from Kirigakure. It’s obviously none of your business why I moved here,” she says, then concentrates her chakra and formes an ice shuriken, which she throws directly at me.  
I see Akira react by activating his Sharingan - he probably wants to copy her technique, but Ice Release is a bloodline limit, he won’t be able to. I use Body Flicker Technique to avoid her ice shuriken, but mostly to suddenly appear behind her. I place my hand on her shoulder and Hatsumomo does her best not to flinch.  
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Hatsu – chan. Let the other two introduce themselves and wait patiently for me to explain the test.”  
The girl looks over her shoulder at me for a second, but this time she doesn’t have a smart reply ready for me.  
I then turn my attention to Hisao, catching him mid yawn. “My name is Nara Hisao,” he immediately begins speaking, fake coughing a few times. “I’m confident I’ll pass your test, because I know about your abilities from my cousin, Shikamaru – san. I’m also the smartest out of the six students who graduated this year.”  
I resist the urge to laugh, then I look at Akira.  
“There’s no need for him to introduce himself,” Hatsumomo speaks before Akira even opens his mouth. “Everybody knows about the freak who can play with his own bones. It’s disgusting,” she continues, shuddering.  
Hisao snaps his head at me, as he probably expects me to defend Akira in some way – everyone knows he had been training with me ever since we stepped foot in this village. When I remain silent for more than ten seconds, he points a finger at Hatsumomo and berates her. “Don’t talk to him like that, you flat chested icy bitch!”  
“What did you say, you fucking bastard?” she yells back in retaliation, raising her clenched fists.  
Akira doesn’t move or speak, he just stares at Hatsumomo with cold eyes.  
I sigh, placing a hand on my forehead. “That’s enough. You’ll have to get on well with each other if you’re going to be a team.”  
“I don’t want to be in the same team with the freak and the arrogant bastard,” Hatsumomo informs me, angrily.  
“Do I look like I give a shit what you want, princess?” I retort, drawing chakra from my curse marks and sending a wave at them.  
They all straighten their backs and look at me warily. Akira and Hisao have their hands behind their backs, probably reaching to their weapons pouch, whereas Hatsumomo has raised both her hands, palms up, ready to form ice shurikens.  
“Better,” I tell them, smiling again. “Now, you have the rest of the day to get to know each others’ abilities and I’ll meet you at the Training Forest Three at midnight.”  
“It’s going to rain tonight,” Hisao whimpers, looking up at the sky filled with dark clouds.  
“Dismissed,” I say, ignoring Hisao.  
I turn on my heels, leaving them on the empty training grounds. I’ve already told them about the training forest being the test place because I want to see if they set any traps for me or not.  
“How did it go?” Kakashi asks me, as soon as I step inside his office.  
“The Nara boy thinks he’s the smartest thing alive, the Yuki girl is like a female version of Sasuke when he first arrived at Orochimaru’s hideout and she hates Akira,” I reply, sighing. “I’m actually surprised you assigned him to my team, it’s not actually fair for the others, I’ve already trained with him.”  
He shrugs. “It would’ve been hard for both Akira and Neji to get used to each other. Iruka and the other instructors at the Academy sometimes complained that the kid is unpredictable, but he obeys you without hesitation.”  
We hear a knock on the door and I turn my head in time to see Neji enter.  
“My team is useless,” he announces as soon as he steps inside the room.  
Both me and Kakashi start laughing, making Neji shake his head in annoyance. “They won’t pass the test, not even if their life depends on it, I’m telling you.”  
“Just make them work as a team and it will be okay. It’s up to you to train them afterwards.”  
Neji scoffs. “Work as a team? I already had to stop the boys from fighting, all they think about is impressing every girl they see around them.”  
“My girl hates both of her teammates,” I reply, still laughing. “What is wrong with these kids?”  
After Neji leaves, I force Kakashi to take a break and have lunch with me at Ramen Ichiraku. When we leave the office and see Shizune coming towards us with a stack of documents in her hand, I grip his hand, turn on my heels and start running away in the opposite direction, laughing. The brunette doesn’t even yell after us anymore, she’s that used to my shenanigans.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Team 15 is formed. :D

It’s midnight and it’s not raining yet, we only hear a thunder from time to time.  
“The test is simple,” I tell the three genins. “Somewhere in this forest, I’ve hid twelve bells, just like these.” I raise my hand, showing them three small bells, clinking them a few times before I continue “Your purpose is to find as many bells as you can. You can also try to take these three from me, if you manage to wound me in any way, even a small scratch will earn you a bell. You can use whatever techniques or tricks you want. At 8 am I’ll stop the game and count the bells each of you have. The student with the least bells will be sent back to the Academy. There is only one rule: you can’t take bells from each other.”  
I clap my hands once, smiling. “Start,” I say, then I jump on a branch above me, sitting leisurely on it.  
I’ve actually lied to them; there are ten bells, not twelve, hidden in the forest and what I didn’t tell them is that the bells are infused with chakra. If they work together with Akira, who can see chakra with his Sharingan, they will be able to find them easily. This is not a competition, as I’ve made it out to be; I actually want them to work together and prove that they can be a team.  
Just as I expected, Hatsumomo is the first to attack me, by throwing a few kunai at me as she runs directly towards me. I fall back, avoiding the kunai, holding myself upside down with the back of my knees on he branch. I swing once, throwing myself in Hatsumomo’s direction, then I hit her with my leg, sending her flying right into Hisao, knocking them both to the ground.  
Akira attacks me a second after I’ve hit the girl, trying to punch and kick me and making sharp bones appear out of his arms and legs every time he thinks he’s close enough, but I easily block all of his attacks. I eventually kick him hard enough to send him too flying across the air, at the same time catching an ice spear Hatsumomo has thrown at me.  
The girl is on her knees, panting, as the spear probably took a lot of her chakra to make, but she slaps Hisao’s hand away when he tries to help her up.  
“Try harder,” I tell them, then I jump back, disappearing behind the trunk of a large tree. I create two Shadow Clones, then I hide in the branches above, watching the kids.  
Hisao and Hatsumomo are yelling and blaming each other, but Akira is staring at a tree near him. He takes a kunai out of his pouch, then drives it into the tree trunk, enlarging the small hole until he can take the bell out. The soft clink shuts Hisao and Hatsumomo up, as they both snap their hands in the direction of Akira.  
“Good job,” Hisao says and at the same time, Hatsumomo asks angrily “How the fuck did you find it?”  
“They are infused with chakra,” Akira replies, turning his Sharingan eyes at them.  
“That’s just great,” the girl replies, rolling her eyes. “So she created this test just for you.”  
“Are you stupid? Sayuri – sensei said that we can’t take bells from each other, not that we can’t help each other” Hisao counters.   
She presses her lips together. “Are you two going to share the bells and leave me with none?”  
Akira stares at her for a while, without responding; then, he takes a few steps to his left, marking the spot by digging at the ground with his sandal. He also throws another kunai at a nearby tree.  
“Two more bells,” he softly says. “One for each of you.”  
Right then, one of my Shadow Clones appears right in front of him, trying to attack him. Akira rapidly makes a few hand signs, blowing fire up in the air and Hisao immediately reacts, enlarging his shadow and sending it to capture the Clone’s, using the light created by the fire technique. Akira then makes a bone dagger come out of his palm and tries attacking the motionless Shadow Clone, but at the same time Hatsumomo attacks the Clone from behind, a kunai in her hand. I release the chakra from my hiding spot, making the Clone disappear, so Hatsumomo and Akira end up attacking each other; he manages to withdraw the bone in time, thus only hitting her with his bare palm, whereas she drives the kunai right into his shoulder.  
“Akira, are you okay?” Hisao asks, running towards them.   
The boy doesn’t respond, he places his hand on his shoulder, covering his wounded and looks at Hatsumomo with murder in his eyes.  
“Next time, get out of my way,” the girl snaps, but she’s visibly worried.  
I decide to leave them alone for the time being and hide deeper in the woods, now that Akira has discovered the bells are infused with chakra and they’re trying to work as a team.  
I find a comfortable enough tree branch and decide to relax for a few minutes, sitting on it with my back against the trunk. I untie my hair, brushing my fingers through it and massaging my scalp. It has already started raining.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It’s thirty minutes past 7 am when they decide to attack me again. They are all soaked and look exhausted after searching the forest for bells the whole night. I’ve watched them gather the ten bells and now, Hatsumomo has four and the boys have three bells each. When they had found the tenth, they decided to play rock – paper – scissors to decide who gets it.   
It’s obvious they have planned the attack beforehand, as Hisao is trying hard to push me in a certain direction with his Shadow Imitation Technique. I decide to play along, because I’m very curious to see their full plan.  
I draw my sword out, effectively blocking Akira’s attack with it, then I catch Hatsumomo’s ice spear with my other free hand. I twist my arms and jump high, pushing the kids into each other. Akira seems to have expected my move, as he wraps one arm around the girl’s body and rips the ice spear from her hands, sending it flying towards me.   
I could activate my curse mark, form my wings and fly away from the spear, but I decided against it. I twist my body as I’m still up in the air, but I feel the spear graze my neck.  
I land a few meters behind them and touch my neck with my fingers, then I inspect the blood on them. “Well done,” I praise them, smiling, then I throw the three bells at them, as they’ve managed to wound me only because they worked together.  
I disappear again from their sight as they are distracted by the bells, hiding in a tree so I can still see and hear them.  
“It’s no use,” Hisao sighs. “We still have to find the two remaining bells so that we can all have the same number.”  
“There’s no time left,” Akira replies. “The remaining two are obviously not infused with chakra, as I can’t find them. Sayuri – sama will stop the game in ten minutes, anyways.”  
Hatsumomo tugs nervously at her long hair for a few seconds, then she pouts angrily. She raises her hands, then forms two bells with her Ice Release, making them look exactly like mine.   
“Here,” she whispers, looking away. “Take them before she comes back.”  
“But, but…we’ll break the rule,” Hisao says, worriedly looking around him.  
“Just take them,” the girl hisses, then drops one bell in Akira’s palm, and the other in Hisao’s.  
I can’t help but chuckle when I see them acting so cute, then jump down from my hiding spot at exactly 8 am.  
“The test is over,” I inform them. “Let’s see the bells.”  
The three of them extend their palms and I count five bells in each of their hands.  
“Impressive,” I tell them, laughing. “What you didn’t know, however, is that I’ve hid only ten bells in the forest, not twelve.”  
I motion for them to drop the bells into my open palm, then I pick the two made of ice and crush them between my fingers. Hatsumomo’s face pales, Akira sighs and Hisao starts biting on his fingernails.  
“You pass, my cute little students,” I inform them, suddenly hugging the three of them at the same time, laughing.   
As soon as she manages to escape from my arms, Hatsumomo asks “Why?” and Hisao looks like he’s about to murder her.  
“Because you worked together, instead of competing with one another. You passed the moment you attacked me earlier, to be honest, but your decision to create ice bells for the boys melted my heart, Hatsu – chan.”  
She blushes, but looks away, folding her arms over her chest. Hisao looks relieved it’s all over, and Akira smiles happily at me.  
“Go home and rest, Team 15, I’ll contact you when Hokage – sama assigns us a mission.”  
I can’t wait to go home and get rid of these wet clothes, either.


	27. Chapter 27

I open the door to my apartment and get inside, making my way to the bedroom, dripping water from my wet clothes and hair everywhere. I smile when I open the bedroom door and see Kakashi sleeping on my bed, shirtless. I lovingly watch him sleep for a minute, then I jump on top of him, with my wet cold clothes still on.  
Kakashi yells, waking up abruptly and gripping my waist with his hands. “Sayuri!”  
“Hello, love,” I tell him, laughing, then grab his face and kiss him on the lips. I get up from the bed after that, then I unzip my flak jacket and take it off, before I make my way to the bathroom.  
Kakashi follows me into the bathroom and helps me out of my wet clothes, before turning the hot water on. He hugs me from behind, softly kissing my shoulder and I lean into him, placing my hands on top of his. He brushes the hair away from my neck, then starts kissing the sensitive skin, nibbling from time to time; I let out a soft whimper when he catches my ear lobe between his teeth.  
I turn around to face him, then place my lips on his collarbone before I brush my finger through his hair and pull his head down so I can kiss his lips. He grabs my buttocks with both his hands, squeezing hard; my palms are traveling down on his muscles chest and toned abs, feeling every scar , before I wrap one of them around his rock hard erection.  
He grabs my waist and turns me around, muttering “I need to be inside of you.” I place my palms on the wall and he slides into me in one swift motion, making me scream. His thrusts are slow and he peppers kisses all over my shoulders, gripping my hips at the same time.   
Kakashi places one hand between my legs, pressing his middle finger on my clit and moving it in circles, then starts moving faster, thrusting harder into me and moaning in my ear. I throw my head back, yelling his name and I feel my legs trembling; he circles my waist with his other arm, supporting my weight as he angles my body, sliding deeper inside of me.  
He bites on my shoulder hard enough to bruise when my walls tighten around him, my whole body tensing; I see stars when he keeps thrusting hard through the waves of pleasure hitting me, moaning loudly as he reaches his own release.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Kakashi has changed the wet bed sheets after he’d left me alone in the shower to wash my hair, so when I come out of the bathroom, wrapped in towels, I can drop face first in the warm and dry bed.  
He laughs, then wraps an arm around me and brings me closer to him, spooning me from behind.  
“I have a meeting with the council this evening, about the upcoming chunin exam, but I can take some free time until then. What do you want to do today?” he asks as he softly kisses my cheek.  
“Sleep,” I reply. I’m not tired, even though I stayed up all night testing my new team, but judging from the dark circles around Kakashi’s eyes, he’s exhausted. “And maybe go eat at the ramen shop before your meeting,” I add, placing my hand over his and intertwining our fingers.  
He nods and stifles a yawn. “How did it go with your students?” he asks and traces the scratch on my neck with his finger. I forgot to heal it before I came home.   
“Akira and the Nara boy work well together and in the end they managed to include the girl in their plan as well. I’m thinking about training them with swords and improving their abilities as much as I can between missions, so I can recommend them for the next chuning exam.”  
“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself? The upcoming chunin exam will start in less than a week, so you’ll have about seven months to train them, but since I have only two teams of genins this year, I was planning to send you and Neji on a lot of mission.”  
“Don’t worry about that,” I reply, waving my hand. “Don’t forget I was trained by Orochimaru. There’s more to him than just experiments. You should see him with a sword.”  
He lets out a long, deep, audible sigh. “Just don’t push them too hard. They’re just kids, don’t forget that.”  
“I promise. Can I help you with anything regarding the chunin exam?”  
“I’ll tell you I anything comes up, thank you,” he responds, but I can see he’s thinking about something else.  
Kakashi pulls me closer, then places his palm on my right shoulder, moving it in a soft caress down the length of my arm, until he settles it on my silver ouroboros bracelet.  
“I saw a nice two storey house that piqued my interest yesterday,” he begins and I turn around to face him.  
“Oh? I thought you liked the Hokage residence.”  
He becomes silent for a moment, like he usually does when he wants to express his feelings, but can’t find the right words. After all this time, I’ve learned to be patient and wait for him to speak when he’s ready.  
“What do you think about two storey houses?”  
“I like them?” I reply, but it comes out as a question because I didn’t actually expect him to ask me that.  
“What do you think about spending the rest of our lives together, in a two storey house?”  
I blink at him a few times before my lips spread in a huge smile. “Are you asking me what I think you are?”  
He nods and I squeal, throwing myself on top of him and hugging him tight. “Yes, I’d love that.”  
It’s only a few second later that I begin to feel terrified about the idea of becoming the Hokage’s wife.


	28. Chapter 28

I grunt as our swords clash for the last time before Orochimaru throws mine from my hands.  
“You’re distracted,” he remarks, watching me as I recover my sword.  
“She’s getting married, she won’t need swords anymore,” Suigetsu teases me, laughing. "She'll replace it with a pan."  
I grip the hilt and then throw the sword at him like I would throw a spear, smiling when he ducks at the last moment. Suigetsu mutters something under his breath, then wraps his arms around Hatsumomo’s body and lifts her up, grinning at me.  
“You can’t throw things at me now! Right, Hatsu – chan?”  
I can’t help but chuckle when I see Hatsumomo’s reaction; she pouts and looks away as if she hates what’s happening, but her face is so red her head might explode.  
After completing Team 15’s first mission –one of the many escort missions Konoha has been flooded with, as a lot of people want Leaf Shinobi bodyguards due to Naruto’s popularity as the hero from Konoha – I decided to take the genins to Orochimaru’s hideout and introduce them as my new team.  
Hatsumomo’s jaw dropped the minute she saw Suigetsu, much to Hisao’s distress, and I thought she’d have a heart attack when the white haired man poured a glass of water all over himself in preparation for his usual fight with Akira. Every time I’ve brought Akira with me to the hideouts, Orochimaru would insist Karin or Suigetsu to fight with him to measure his improvement. The one time I found Jugo at the hideout, he refused, so Orochimaru had to test Akira himself.  
This time, though, I found all three of them with Orochimaru and took the chance to tell them about Kakashi’s proposal and the wedding we plan to have after the chunin exams.  
“Don’t worry, Sayuri, we are all coming to your wedding for the free food,” Suigetsu says, which only earns him a punch to the back of his head from Karin. “Hey, be careful you bitch, I’m holding precious Hatsu – chan.”  
I see Hisao roll his eyes and fold his arms over his chest. “You can put her down anytime, you know.”  
The white haired man laughs at the boy’s remark, then throws Hatsumomo up in the air, catching her back in his arms and spinning with her. The brunette looks like she’s about to fain. “But she’s so cute.”  
“I’ve never seen her like this, she’s usually hurling insults at people,” I tell Karin.  
The red head makes a disgusted face. “Let me check her eyes, she might have a serious problem if she finds Suigetsu attractive,” she replies, gagging dramatically and making me laugh.  
Jugo shakes his head at us. “Have you heard from Sasuke?”  
“No, not recently,” I respond, sighing. “I haven’t seen him since the incident with the cult who stole chakra from the Tailed Beasts.”  
“Come with me, Sayuri,” Orochimaru suddenly tells me, then turns around and leaves the underground training hall.  
Hisao looks worriedly at me, then at Jugo, Karin and Suigetsu, then back at me. He felt uncomfortable ever since we came here.  
“Don’t worry, Hisao, we’ll leave as soon as I’m done talking,” I assure him, smiling and ruffling his hair as I walk past him.  
“I want to include you in a future experiment,” Orochimaru tells me as soon as we are alone. “There’s no need to tell you Akira is your most successful experiment so far, but he will unfortunately not live as long as a normal human being. He’s developing too fast for that, according to the blood tests you asked me to run,” he informs me, with no emotion in his voice.  
I place a palm over my forehead, then rub the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “How long do you think he’ll live?”  
“Thirty or forty years maximum, if nothing kills him in the meantime,” he replies, then places a hand over my shoulder when he sees my distress. “Be happy you didn’t know how to put a curse mark on him, it would’ve shortened his life even more.”  
I nod, then brush my fingers through my hair. “What’s this experiment you talk about?”  
“Synthetic humans, of course,” he replies, grinning in his usual predatory way. “We can also search for a way to prolong Akira’s life, too,” he adds.  
“What do I tell the Hokage?” I ask, arching an eyebrow at him. “Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to start, but…”  
“Tell your husband,” Orochimaru replies, emphasizing the last word, “that my intention is to create synthetic organs that could be transplanted into people that need such surgeries.”  
“It’s your way to make amends,” I complete him, smiling. “But don’t be surprised if I bring my genins here for training sometimes. I want to recommend them for the next chunin exam and I want to train them properly.”  
“The first part is research anyway and it will take longer than you expect, Sayuri. Concentrate on your own experiment for the time being. I’ll send an official request to the Hokage when I’ll want you here.” He grins, then continues as he motions for me to return to the others “As for the wedding, my congratulations. You were the weirdest child I’ve ever seen in my life.”  
I roll my eyes. “Well, thank you for your compliment. I hope the gift you’ll bring for my wedding is better than that, Orochimaru – sama,” I tell him as we enter the training hall.  
“We have to bring gifts?” Suigetsu groans, making Hatsumomo giggle.  
“We’re going back to Konoha,” I announce. “Hatsumomo is transforming in a fan girl, we can’t have that,” I add and Hisao nodds his head in approval. I look at Akira for a second and he smiles back at me, like he usually does and that makes me want to cry. Instead, I vow to myself I’ll find a way to fix him.


	29. Chapter 29

It’s late at night when I enter the Hokage’s office to submit my report. I sit on the window sill until Shizune leaves the office, because I don’t want to talk about Orochimaru in front of her. Before I open my mouth to speak, though, Shikamaru enters the office, accompanied by a blonde kunoichi. If I remember correctly, her name is Temari and she’s the older sister of the Kazekage.  
“We’re almost done with the organizational part of the chunin exams. We need a proctor for the final round matches,” Shikamaru begins speaking, then his eyes land on me. “Ah, we’ve found a proctor.”  
I raise an eyebrow at him. “And here I was, thinking I’ll get to watch the matches from a safe distance, actually enjoying them.”  
“You’ll have the time of your life right there, on the battle grounds,” Shikamaru replies, then writes my name on one of his papers. “Sign here, please.”  
After I sign the paper, he hands all of them to the Hokage, then stretches his arms and yawns. “And we’re finally done.”  
“Let’s see,” Kakashi replies, then immediately starts going through the documents.  
“How was my cousin’s first mission?” Shikamaru asks me.  
“He complained it was too boring of an escort mission, then complained when we were attacked by bandits. But he works well with his teammates,” I respond and Temari chuckles.  
“Sounds like someone we know,” she mutters and Shikamaru rolls his eyes.  
“Perfect,” Kakashi says, and we all turn our attention to him. “Thank you for your hard work.”  
As soon as the two shinobi leave the office, Kakashi leans back on his chair and closes his eyes. “Finally done for the day. What did you want to talk about?”  
“I’ve visited Orochimaru today, after I’ve finished the mission and…”  
He groaned. “After I’ve spent a significant part of my day assuring the council that no, my future wife is not associated with Orochimaru anymore.”  
“Then this is probably not a good time to tell you that he wants my help with a future experiment of his,” I reply, chuckling.  
“This is serious, Sayuri.”  
“Oh, is this our first fight?” I ask, cupping my own face with my hands and making puppy eyes at him.  
The silver haired man sighs deeply. “What experiment?”  
“Creating synthetic organs for transplants. He said it will take a while before he can make an attempt and he will send an official request to you when he’ll need my help.”  
Kakashi snorts. “Yeah, right. What’s the real experiment?”  
“This is the real experiment,” I insist, rolling my eyes. There’s no point in worrying him and telling him about the synthetic humans Orochimaru wants to create, there’s no guarantee he’ll even succeed – well, he’ll most likely succeed, but it will take some time, no use in talking about it now. “He said he wants to make amends,” I add and he brushes a hand through his hair.  
“We’ll talk about this more when he sends that official request. In the meantime, please don’t talk about this with anyone and please don’t take your team to his hideout anymore.”  
“You’re unreasonable. They are allies of Konoha now. And if I didn’t take Akira there to have Orochimaru run some tests on his, I wouldn’t have found out he’ll only live for thirty years. He promised to help me find a way to prolong his life,” I say, looking away.  
He sighs, then grabs my waist and pulls me in his lap, embracing me and resting his chin on the top of my head. “I’m sorry about Akira. But shouldn’t that teach you a lesson about trying to play God?”  
I close my eyes and don’t respond. There’s no use fighting with him on this subject.


	30. Chapter 30

“Can you help me with something?” Kakashi asks me, when I drop by his office to bring him something to eat.  
I motion for him to continue, then sit on my usual spot at the window sill.  
“One of the kids that advanced to the final round matches that will be held a month from now is the son of an old friend of mine and he asked me to train him for the last part of the chunin exam.”  
“What’s his name? I watched the preliminaries and I remember all of them.”  
“Saizou. Can you train him, please?”  
I sigh. “I don’t know, Kakashi. How am I supposed to train this kid, go on missions with my team and organize our wedding at the same time?”  
“I’ll send other shinobi in your place as Team 15’s leader.”  
I bite on a fingernail, thinking. “Saizou was good at taijutsu, I have to admit.”  
“And he’s a fire user, but his father didn’t let him use ninjutsu at the preliminaries so that the others won’t know what to expect of him during the final round.”  
“Allright, I’ll teach him the fire techniques of the Uchiha Clan,” I relent. “And maybe some genjutsu, if he can do it.”  
Kakashi smiles at me. “Thank you, love.”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I have to admit, being the proctor of the final round was fun, as the kids were brutal with each other. I only had to stop two fights because one of the genins was obviously losing, but his opponent wouldn’t stop attacking. The first fight I had to stop was Saizou’s; his opponent was on his knees, coughing blood and raising his hands in surrender, but Saizou had murder in his eyes for some reason and attacked him with a kunai.  
“Don’t make a fool of yourself, you’ve won, you idiot,” I growled at him as soon as I kicked the kunai from his hand.  
The second fight I had to stop was between two Hyuga genins. Everyone knew the boy was trained by Neji and the girl by Hinata, so the match was highly anticipated. I had to step in when the girl lost her consciousness and the boy prepared for another attack.  
“Teach your student some discipline,” I tell Neji during the break before the last match.  
“You’re one to talk,” he replies sarcastically.  
The last match is between Saizou and Daisuke, the boy trained by Neji.  
“Let’s bet on these kids,” Sakura suggests and Ino grins. “The loser’s master will pay for barbecue when we’ll all go out this evening.”  
“Done,” Neji says, a smug grin on his face.  
My pride prevents me from withdrawing, but I don’t think Saizou can beat a Hyuga. However, when I see Neji give Daisuke a katana and advice him on Saizou’s weaknesses, while Sakura is healing his wounds, I decide I can’t send my student with no advantage in this battle.  
“Remember the sword training we had, when I let you use my sword?” I ask Saizou, as I sat down on the bench next to him and start healing his wounds. I’m not as good as Sakura, but I don’t need an actual medic ninja, I can handle his wounds.  
He nods and I continue. “A Byakugan user has the blind spot at the back of the neck, above the first thoracic vertebra. Try to turn this in a long range fight and aim for that blind spot, okay? Here.”  
I hand him my sword, which is a copy of the Kusanagi sword Orochimaru has, just like Sasuke’s. “Remember how this sword can elongate and try to use it to your advantage. Daisuke will try to turn this into a sword fight, but don’t let him bait you. Attack from a safe distance. Good luck.”  
“But do I really have to win? Hokage – sama said the last two genins will be made chunin anyways. The final match is for entertainment purposes only.”  
I draw chakra from my curse mark and bare my fangs at him in a creepy smile. “Am I hearing a complain?”  
The boy shakes his head rapidly, then takes my sword and makes a run for the arena.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It was technically a draw, since both boys passed out due to blood loss from the injuries they sustained from one another during the fight. In Sakura and Ino’s eyes, this counted as a double loss, so me and Neji have to split the bill.  
“Daisuke was still awake when Saizou passed out,” Neji complains, then bites on a piece of meat.  
“Are you fucking with me? I was the proctor, dumbass, I was right there. Saizou closed his eyes last.”  
“Come on, calm down,” Tenten intervenes, with an uneasy laugh, then hands her boyfriend a glass of beer.  
“Still, the battle was fired up,” Lee declares, punching the air.  
“Eh, I think Daisuke would have won if Sayuri hadn’t given Saizou her Kusanagi sword,” Kiba declares. “It’s hard to win against a Byakugan user when you don’t have a sword that can elongate.”  
“My point exactly,” Neji replies and I roll my eyes.  
“You gave me the idea when you handed your student the katana infused with chakra that can stop fire attacks. Without it, Saizou would have burned your boy to a crisp.”  
“Calm down, calm down,” Tenten tries again and Hinata nods.  
“Neither Neji, nor Sayuri would have given their students those weapons if Sakura and Ino hadn’t suggested the bet,” Naruto says, pointing with his chopsticks at the two girls, which only earns him a double punch on his head.  
“It doesn’t make any difference to me, I’m still eating free barbecue,” Shikamaru remarks, shrugging and Temari chuckles, leaning into him. I’ve heard Shikamaru complain about “that fierce woman from the Sand” a lot before Ino the gossip queen had informed us that she’d caught them kissing on one of the many hallways of the Hokage building.  
“Seconds, please!” Chouji yells, making both me and Neji sigh. It’s the fourth time he’d yelled that.


	31. Chapter 31

I never would have expected someone would actually try to poison the Hokage and the council during a meeting. But let’s back it up a little.  
It’s around noon when I receive the written order to attend the meeting with the council and the Hokage at 7 pm the same day. I’m in the middle of my training with Hatsumomo when I receive the scroll. I’ve established a program where I train my students individually on some of the days and then have them attack me as a team after giving them 24 hours to come up with a plan; sometimes they have to take a certain object from me, other times they have to prevent me from taking it from them. It’s just like the second round of the chunin exam, when teams have to fight others for the second scroll and protect their own.  
Tomorrow should be their last fight for now, since I want to take a break, because the wedding is in a week and I’m freaking out.  
“Let’s call it a day,” I tell Hatsumomo at around 5 pm.  
“I can still go,” she protests, panting. Among the three of them, she’s the most ambitious to become a chunin.  
“I know, but I’ve been summoned to a meeting and I have to get ready. Get some rest, Hatsu and prepare for tomorrow’s team training, okay?”  
I decided to get dressed in black tight clothes with the flak jacket over for the meeting. I sigh as I listen to one councilman expressing his disapprove about something, as I wrap a strand of hair around my fingers. I’m worried because I don’t know yet how I’m going to style my hair for the wedding. The traditional clothing I’ve ordered for the wedding isn’t ready yet – I almost cried when the head seamstress told me so. Sasuke didn’t respond to my invitation, but I’m going to kill him myself if he doesn’t come to my fucking wedding.  
“Uchiha Sayuri,” one of the councilman finally yells at me when it’s obvious I wasn’t paying attention.  
I blink, snapping my attention to him and notice that everyone – including Kakashi – is staring at me.  
I clear my voice, then ask “Can you repeat the question?”  
I notice Shikamaru try to hide his laugh and Shizune shakes her head, sighing. “We’ve received a request from Orochimaru. He wants your help for an experiment regarding the creation of synthetic organs.”  
“Mhm hmm, and?” I mutter, my mind on the combination of flowers I should ask Ino to decorate the venue with.  
“And I said it’s clearly a plot against Konoha,” an elder says, hatred in his voice.  
I hum again, then absent mindedly pick up a spring roll from one of the food platters. I take a second, then a third, because they are so damn delicious. Did I order enough food for the wedding?  
Kakashi clears his voice. “Orochimaru is an ally to Konoha now, he claimed this is his way of making amends for his past crimes.”  
“What if he uses the Uchiha girl as his spy? We don’t know his intentions.”  
“Sayuri is a jonin in this village, don’t speak about her like this,” Kakashi replies on an ice cold tone, staring the councilman down.  
Shikamaru decides to elbow me when I’m munching on the sixth’s spring roll. “Pay attention, what is wrong with you?” he whispers to me.  
“I find it hard to believe a genius like Orochimaru would need her help for such a complicated experiment,” an older woman says. “Unless you know something we don’t about your future wife, Hokage – sama.”  
Only Kakashi, Iruka and Tsunade know the truth about Akira being my experiment, the rest think he was an orphan I came across during one the many missions Orochimaru would send me on. Because of his Sharingan, many believed he was actually my son, but then the rumour that Orochimaru had someone’s Sharingan eyes in his possession and transplanted them into Akira was more plausible.  
I can’t think about wedding details with all this noise, it’s what I want to tell them, but it would probably anger them even more. I decide to finally participate in their heated discussion and be done with it, so I clear my voice.  
“Does anyone have a good enough reason to not let me go when the time comes?” I ask.  
I suddenly don’t feel so good. I hear a ringing in my noise, I’m unusually thirsty and I feel a bit dizzy. I cough a few times and when I look at my trembling hand, I see blood.  
“Shit, the food is poisoned,” I inform them, then cough blood a few more times and drop to my knees.  
Kakashi is on his feet and by my side a second later, wrapping an arm around me.  
“I’ll be fine, just give me a few minutes,” I assure him, as I feel my temperature rise, always a good sign when I’m poisoned. “I had to eat six fucking spring rolls, for fuck’s sake.”  
Kakashi is too worried about me to lecture me about my language.  
“Did anyone eat anything?” I hear Shizune asking, raising her voice over those of the councilman, while Shikamaru tries unsuccessfully to quiet them.  
My body finally eliminates all the poison and I stand up, wiping the blood from my lips. “Sorry to break it to you, but my hypothetical betrayal is the least of your concerns,” I tell the furious councilman who was accusing me of becoming Orochimaru’s spy. 


	32. Chapter 32

“I can’t believe someone poisoned the food for the council meeting a fucking week before the wedding!” I yell in frustration, as soon as I’m alone with Kakashi in his office.  
“Sakura’s team is analyzing the poison as we speak and there are a few teams searching the village for intruders. They may have entered the village during the chunin exams,” he says. “Are you sure you’re okay and you don’t need a medic ninja to see you?” he asks me, for the third time.  
“I’m testing your food from now on,” I inform him, ignoring his last question.  
“No, you won’t,” he replies, with a tone that suggests he is ending the subject.  
We are in the middle of our argument when the door is forced open and Hisao walks in, his hair and clothes wet, breathing heavily. “Sayuri – sensei, some water users attacked us and they took Hatsumomo with them!”  
I throw my arms up in frustration, then Kakashi motions the boy to come closer. “What happened?”  
“We were together on one of the training grounds, discussing the plan for tomorrow’s training with Sensei and it suddenly started raining, but it wasn’t a normal rain, because it depleted our chakra. Then Akira tried to fight them, but they were too many and before we knew it, they left with Hatsumomo. I managed to catch one with my Shadow jutsu, but I think Akira killed him, there was so much blood…”  
“Good job, Hisao. Are you hurt?” I ask him, placing a hand on his shoulder.  
“No, they only wounded Akira, he’s still there. One of the attackers had twin swords imbued with lightning, we couldn’t guard against that.”  
Kakashi summons a team of Anbu and sends them to the training ground where the fight happened, accompanied by Pakkun; they have to take Akira to the hospital and transport the supposedly dead ninja to Konohakagure Intelligence Division, in order to extract information from him. In the meantime, Team Kurenai with Neji as the leader and Pakkun have to try and find Hatsumomo. I’ve also summoned Kanda in her small form and had her accompany Neji and the others, in case they need to track Hatsumomo by her chakra signature.  
It doesn’t take long until we receive information about the injured ninja – Akira didn’t kill him, after all. They are a group of ten missing nin from both Konoha and Kirigakure and, just like Kakashi has suspected, they came in the village during the chunin exams. Their leader wants the powers of the Yuki clan for himself and he was promised exactly that, in exchange for an attempt on the Hokage’s life. This matches the fact that only the food from the platters surrounding the Hokage were poisoned. Usually they don’t serve food during the council meetings, so the two councilmen who decided to have food platters brought are the first suspects. According to the prisoner, they have several hideouts in the Land of Water and that’s where the group must have taken Hatsumomo.  
“They probably never expected Sayuri to start eating while the elders were berating her,” Shikamaru says, sighing. “Don’t tell me we have another Danzo on our hands.”  
I heard stories about this Danzo who tried to take over the power from Tsunade and make himself the Hokage; Sasuke had killed him right before I was reverse summoned from the Ryuchi Cave and met Kakashi and his team for the first time.  
“Do we have any leads on Hatsumomo’s whereabouts?”   
“No, net yet,” Shizune replies. “She and the other missing nin disappeared without a trace. We have to send a message to the Mizukage and inform her about this.”  
“Yes, well, in the meantime, I’ll go to the Land of Water and take Suigetsu with me because he knows it well,” I reply, matter of factly.  
“You can’t go to the Land of Water just like that,” the brunette counters, raising her voice. “The Hokage will contact the Mizukage, then we’ll send a team of Leaf Shinobi on an official mission.”  
“Okay, and at the same time, I’ll search for her with Suigetsu, because he was born in the Land of Water and knows it better than us,” I say again, slowly this time.   
“Hokage – sama!” she exclaims, looking at Kakashi.  
“Hokage – sama,” I mimic her in a retarded voice, making a face at her and sticking my tongue out.  
“Enough,” Kakashi growls, passing a hand over his face. “I’ll inform the Mizukage I already sent a team to the Land of Water because it’s an urgent situation and I’ll promise to deliver the missing nin from Kirigakure to her as prisoners.”  
He sighs, before continuing “I’ll also inform Yamato, who is guarding Orochimaru’s hideout at this moment to tell Suigetsu about the mission and wait for you at the hideout. You’ll take…”  
Right that moment, the door opens forcefully, slamming against the door and Naruto walks in, furious. “Kakashi – sensei, one more escort mission and I’ll snap,” he yells, throwing a half assed written report at Shizune. “I need a real mission!”  
“You’ll take Naruto with you, he works well with Yamato,” Kakashi finishes his sentence, resting his chin on his hand.   
“Hell, yeah!” the blond exclaims, throwing his arms up in excitement. “What’s the mission?”  
“Your mission is to make sure you deliver some missing nin from Kirigakure back to their village with no missing limbs,” the silver haired man tells Naruto.   
“It only happened one time!” I groan.  
“I’ll send Neji’s team after you as soon as they’re back.”   
“This is a bad idea,” Shizune mutters, shaking her head.  
“Everything is a bad idea in your opinion, you stuck up bitch,” I reply, rolling my eyes. “Come on, blondie, we’re infiltrating the Land of Water and wreaking havoc!”


	33. Chapter 33

“We should use Naruto’s summoning frogs to get into the Land of Water undetected,” I suggest as soon as me and Naruto meet Yamato and Suigetsu.  
“They are toads,” the blond mutters at the same time as Suigetsu complains “Why do I have to come with you?”  
“Because it’s your chance to take the Thunderswords for yourself,” I say, smiling. “The leader of these missing nin was wielding a pair of swords imbued with lightning when the kidnapped Hatsumomo, according to Hisao.”  
“We never discussed such a thing, the Kiba swords belong to Kirigakure,” Yamato intervenes.  
“So? Swords can go missing all the time,” Suigetsu replies and I add “He has a point.”  
“Come on, let’s go save Hatsumomo, we can discuss this sword thing later,” Naruto interrupts us, then summons a toad.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“Kakashi - senpai told me we have to return the missing nin to Kirigakure without missing limbs,” Yamato tells me in a stern voice.  
“He’s not missing anything,” I reply, then grip the man’s wrist with my hand transformed in a dragon claw and break it.  
His screams cover Yamato’s next words, which makes Suigetsu laugh. “Break the other one so he can’t make hand seals,” the white haired shinobi suggests.  
“How about you put him in genjutsu and find out some useful information?” Yamato intervenes. This time he is actually mad with me. “This type of behaviour is exactly what makes the people from Konoha distrust you, Sayuri. I don’t think you understand the position you put Kakashi – senpai in everytime you do something like this. It makes him look bad and he is the Hokage.”  
Suigetsu laughs even harder. “There’s nothing more entertaining than this.”  
Naruto comes back from investigating the abandoned building where we found the man I’m currently torturing.   
“Did you find anything?” I ask, but he shakes his head.  
I grip the man’s hair and activate my Sharingan, forcing him to look into my eyes. I use genjutsu to make him spill everything he knows, but he doesn’t tell us anything new, just that their leader wants the Ice Release of the Yuki Clan for himself.  
Only when we reach the third hideout and find the exact same thing – an empty building and only one man guarding it who can’t tell us anything new – we come to the conclusion that this might have been a trap.  
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Yamato says and we all agree.  
“I’m summoning Kanda,” I announce, but before I do it, Nauto notices an inky black bird flying towards us.  
Yamato unwraps an empty scroll and lays it on the ground, so the bird could land on it and transform into a message. We all look over his shoulder to read the message and I feel my heart skip a beat.  
“The Hokage died protecting the village during an attack. The attack was orchestrated by Uchiha Sayuri, who is a Level S Criminal now. Your new mission is to kill her. This isn’t Sai’s handwriting,” Yamato remarks, after he finishes reading the message.   
Suigetsu elbows me, chuckling. “Leve S Criminal, did you hear that?”  
“It’s impossible for Kakashi – sensei to die during an attack done by what, a handful of people? Right, Captain Yamato?” Naruto intervenes, sneaking a few looks at me.  
“I can’t even organize my own wedding properly, how am I supposed to orchestrate an attack?” I mutter, shaking my head. Not going to lie, though, I’m worried about Kakashi now, reason why I say the next words “How about you and Naruto go back to the village and me and Suigetsu continue looking for Hatsumomo?”  
“You don’t think…”  
“I’m worried,” I cut him off. “I’m worried, okay? Just go, please.”  
Yamato looks at Naruto for a second, then they both nod their heads at me and the blond summons a toad to get them out of the Land of Water and back to Konoha.  
“We’re doing things our way now, no more restrictions,” I tell Suigetsu, cracking my knuckles and he grins at me.


	34. Chapter 34

When I return to Konoha using Kanda’s teleportation ability, after eventually finding Hatsumomo in one of the hideouts from the Land of Water, I arrive right in the middle of an attack. There are missing nin from both Kirigakure and Konoha fighting against the Anbu and the jonin.   
I draw my sword and join the fight, searching for Kakashi. When I find him, he’s fighting a man wielding the Kiba swords and I can’t help but smile when I see him using the twin Kusanagi swords that Sasuke and I gifted him with when he was appointed Hokage.  
Both men are covered in bloody cuts and bruises, but eventually Kakashi gets the upper hand. He pretends to lose his footing, so that his opponent would try to pierce him and leave a part of his body open. He manages to drive one of his swords into the enemy’s abdomen, but I see him wince when the other’s blade pierces his shoulder.  
I activate Mangekyou and set some enemies on fire with my Amaterasu, thus clearing the path so I can reach Kakashi. He kicks away his opponent’s body and retrives the Kiba swords from him as I reach him.  
“Behind you,” he yells just as I feel a hand grab my hair and Hironori’s dagger is pressed to my throat.  
“One wrong step and I cut her throat.” The voice belongs to the councilman who kept accusing Orochimaru of plotting against Konoha.  
I snort as I draw chakra from my curse marks, freeing my dragon wings and pushing him away from me before he can drive the chakra absorbing dagger into my body. I immediately brush my fingers through my hair and breathe a sigh of relief when I find it intact, then I turn to face the councilman, the Kusanagi sword in my hand infused with my lightning chakra.  
He turns to leave, but Kakashi had teleported himself behind the councilman, effectively trapping him.  
“Don’t kill him,” he instructs me as he looks around to assess the situation. “I’ll hold him, go help protect the Academy, all the children are there.”  
It doesn’t take long until the enemies are crushed. We can’t take any prisoners, because the ones still alive after the fight swallow poison pills they had hidden under their tongues. Kakashi had managed to notice the councilman’s pill before he could snap his teeth on it, so he’s now in the hands of Ibiki Morino who will do his best to pry information out of him.  
Kakashi refused to let anymedical ninja heal his wound, because there were enough injured people who needed their attention. I barely had time to close the injury and wrap a bandage around it before he threw the Hokage robe over his shoulders and made his way to the interogation room where the traitor was held in.  
I decide to go to the hospital to visit Akira and Hatsumomo as they have both been places in the same hospital ward, since their injuries are not life threatening. On my way to their room, though, I bump into Sakura.  
“Did you come to help us heal the wounded?” she asks, a smile on her face.  
I resist the urge to make a grimace because no, I’m not here for that, but there’s no way she would look at me the same if I said that, so I plaster a fake smile on my face and nod.  
“Perfect, come with me.”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
After healing enough people to last a lifetime, I finally escape Sakura’s hawk eyes and make my way to Kakashi’s private rooms in the Hokage Residence.  
“Where have you been?” he asks me as soon as I close the door behind me.  
I flip my hair, chuckling. “I helped Sakura heal the injured people. I still have enough chakra to heal your wound better,” I say as I sat down on the bed next to him.   
No longer sustained by adrenaline, Kakashi makes a low sound of pain when I remove the bloody bandages from his shoulder. “You’ve reopened it,” I sigh, then place my palm over it and concentrate my chakra.  
“Yamato told me about the ink message you received while in the Land of Water,” he begins.  
I snort. “Most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”  
“Still, you were worried enough to send Naruto and Yamato back.”  
“Worried about you,” I retort and it comes out sharper than I intended.   
We are both silent as I wrap clean bandages around his shoulder.  
“Aren’t you tired of people always suspecting you?”  
“Yamato already lectured me on how I make you look bad, don’t worry,” I reply, waving my hand and beginning to stand up.   
Kakash grabs my wrist and pulls me back down on the edge the bed. “I never thought about that. I’m just worried about your feelings…I’m worried you’ll eventually decide you’ve had enough and leave the village.”  
“I’m used to people not liking me,” I reply, trying to sound brave. In reality, it bothers me that people are so distrustful towards me and always suspicious about my next move. It’s true that things would be easier if I just go back to my life before Konoha, but that life doesn’t include him.  
Kakashi sighs, then places his palm on the side of my neck, gently brushing his thumb across my jawline. “I wish I could shut them all up so they don’t hurt you with their words anymore.”  
“You could always rip their tongues out,” I suggest, wiggling my eyebrows at him.   
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” he tells me, laughing quietly as he wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer to him.  
I press my lips to his for a few seconds, then I hug him back, careful not to hurt his shoulder. “You looked so hot with the twin blades. It’s been a long time since I watched you fight.”  
I feel his chest vibrate with his laughter before he kisses the top of my head.


	35. Chapter 35

“Don’t look at me like that, we’ll be gone for a week,” Kakashi tells me, then resumes reading a report.  
I’ve been sitting cross – legged on his desk, with my arms folded over my chest, staring at him for the past ten minutes.  
“If I have dark circles tomorrow because of you, I’m going to murder you at our own wedding,” I threaten him after ten more minutes pass.  
“I just have to finish these documents, five more minutes.”  
After exactly five minutes, I take the papers away from his hands, then slide my body down from the desk until I sit in his lap. His hands automatically rest on my hips, even if he shakes his head. “Sayuri…”  
I press my lips on his cheek, right where the vertical scar ends, then I begin to pepper soft kisses all along his jawline. “I can’t wait to have you for myself for a whole week,” I whisper in his ear before biting his lobe.  
Kakashi pushes one hand under my shirt, gently caressing my back as he leans forward to press his lips on mine. He cups my face with his other hand, then slips his tongue through my lips when I gasp, slightly out of breath. He catches my lower lip between his teeth, then bites down on it hard enough to make me shudder and moan.  
Kakashi grips my waist and moves me back on the desk, before pushing his hands up on my body until he settles them on my breasts. He starts kissing my exposed abdomen, kneading my breasts and sometimes pinching my nipples. I push my head back until it dangles off the desk and let a soft sigh of pleasure, then tangle my fingers through his hair.  
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” he says in a husky voice, then grabs the hem of my shirt and pulls it off of me. He leans down until his mouth closes around one of my nipples, tugging and biting on it.  
I pull on his hair and raise his head so I can kiss him on the lips, then place my palms on his chiseled chest and let them travel down to his lower body after I unbutton his shirt. I smile against his lips when I push one hand in his pants and feel his rock hard erection.  
“No more teasing, need you now,” I whisper and pull his pants down.   
I’m a bit anxious because it’s not that late at night, anyone could come into the office any moment, but I also enjoy the rush of adrenaline.  
Kakashi pushes his hands under my skirt and removes my panties, then parts my thighs so he can fit between them. I whimper when he pushes his cock inside of me and I hook my legs behind his back.  
“Don’t make a sound,” he commands, grunting as thrusts in low, deep strokes, one hand pressed against my neck, squeezing only a bit.  
He grabs my arms with his free hand and pins them down above my head, then starts thrusting harder and faster, setting up a maddening pace. I arch against him as he drives his hips into mine, angling my body so he can hit that delicious spot inside of me.  
He presses his lips on mine, swallowing my loud moans and screams when the waves of pleasure hit me and I tense and tighten around him, my orgasm prolonged by his hard thrusts. I feel him falter and lose the rhythm as he thrusts wildly and mercilessly into me before he finds his own release, shooting hot liquid deep inside of me, his hands on my hips pinning me down, his face buried in my neck so it can muffle his moans.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
We’re both completely naked – since no one disturbed us during round one, Kakashi decided to press me against the window and fuck me from behind for round two. He’s leaning back in his chair in a relaxed position, holding me flush against his chest. He plants a soft kiss on my forehead and I close my eyes, smiling contentedly. It’s moments like this that make me melt in his embrace, the tenderness in his actions after rough, dominant sex.  
I press my lips against his collarbone as my hands roam freely over his sides. “I can’t wait to live together with you.”  
He hugs me even tighter. “I can’t wait to always fall asleep next to you and wake up next to you. I love you so much.”  
“I love you, too.”


	36. Chapter 36

I look at myself in the mirror, carefully analyzing my make – up, hair and outfit. I have to admit, the white kimono with red hems and a red winged dragon on the back looks bomb. The dragon is curled around a red camellia – as far as I know, the red camellia means love. I’ve decided to keep both clan names, so the wedding kimono – as well as the clothes I’m going to wear from this day on – have both crests on the shoulder blades, the Uchiha crest on the left and the Hatake crest on the right side.  
“You look beautiful, stop frowning or I’ll give you a reason to,” Karin threatens me, smacking me in the forehead.  
I stick out my tongue at her, then I brush a strand of hair away from my face. Instead of a formal updo, I opted for a top knot secured by ornate hairsticks. The hairsticks are a gift from Tenten – my favorite present so far, but I keep that to myself - and yes, they are actually weapons.  
“Let’s go outside,” Temari suggests, motioning for the girls to follow her. Since it’s the Hokage’s wedding, all the other Kage and their entourage were invited, and of course Temari couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see her boyfriend. We’re all curious to see how this long distance relationship of theirs will evolve, since Shikamaru always changes the subject and Temari says they’re just having fun.  
I’m alone for only a few minutes and I’m looking through the window, my eyes fixed on the Hokage Rock, when Kakashi joins me, wearing his black montsuki haori hakama like he was made for it. He’s not wearing his mask, like I’ve asked him too - well, I’ve threatened to claw it off his face if he showed up wearing it.  
“Nervous?” he asks me, smiling as he gently takes my hand.  
“Not anymore,” I reply, squeezing his hand.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
The ceremony at the shrine was beautiful, we took a thousand photos with just the both of us and together with our friends. I can’t wait to decorate our new home with all the important ones, I can already imagine it.  
Even so, the outdoor reception is my favorite part, since I’m fucking starving. I was too nervous to eat anything before the ceremony started.  
“My love,” Kakashi tells me, bringing my hand to his lips and softly kissing my knuckles.   
I grin and wink at him, before cupping his face with my free hand and planting a kiss on his lips.  
Some people seemed a bit offended that Orochimaru and the former Team Taka attended my wedding, but I didn’t let it bother me. Sakura tried her best not to crack open Karin’s head when she wrapped her arms around Sasuke after not seeing him for so many months, Jugo told Suigetsu three times to leave some food for the rest of the guests, whereas Tsunade and Orochimaru had an actually decent conversation with each other. Shizune surprised everyone when she was seen holding hands with Shiranui Genma, the hottest elite bodyguard of the Hokage, in my opinion. Ino the Gossip Queen told us she heard a rumor about Naruto planning to propose to Hinata and she also heard Sasuke asking Sakura if she would like to come with him when he leaves the village again, after the wedding.  
I can’t help but chuckle when I see Hisao bringing Hatsumomo a plate filled with all her favorite foods and they share it. She’s still throwing insults at him, but the brunet doesn’t get offended anymore. Akira looks a bit jealous and steals a dumpling from Hatsumomo, which results in her chasing him around.  
But most importantly, no one ruined our wedding with a surprise attack or anything of the sort.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
We decided to take a week for ourselves after the wedding and leisurely travel to one of the border towns where a festival is being held after relaxing for a few days at an onsen reserved only for the two of us. We want to use disguises such as wigs and colored contact lenses, so that no one would bother us on the road. As far as anyone from outside the village is concerned, Kakashi is returning to his office after the days at the onsen are over.  
I finish packing the bags as I wait for him to come back from the office, where he is putting things in order with Shikamaru for the week to come. Two more shinobi had been removed from the council after the first councilman’s interrogation was over and revealed them as traitors. It annoyed me to no end that we had to postpone the wedding until all investigations were over, but I knew it was the right thing to do and didn’t voice my anger in any way.  
I stretch my arms above my head and lay down on the bed of our new bedroom – our new two storey house. I somehow can’t believe this is my life now; even so, I can’t stop smiling.


	37. Chapter 37

I yawn, then put my hair up in a messy bun atop my head and dip into the hot water. Kakashi is still sleeping, but I got bored waiting for him to wake up, so I decided to hit the hot spring by myself for now. It’s so relaxing being alone in an onsen, I think to myself as I rest my head on a smooth rock, closing my eyes.  
I sense Kakashi when he approaches me, but I don’t open my eyes; I smile when he crouches next to me and bends down to kiss my lips. I open my eyes then, taking in his body; he’s naked, except for a white towel wrapped loosely around his hips.  
“Good morning,” he tells me, then removes the towel and comes inside the hot water, with a content sigh when he sits next to me.  
“It’s noon,” I reply, chuckling. I place my head on his shoulder, then close my eyes again. “I could get used to this.”  
“Want to stay here the rest of the days?”  
I shake my head. “I can’t wait to go to the festival, it’s been a few years since I’ve seen one. All that street food…”  
Kakashi circles my body with his arm and pulls me closer to him.   
It’s our last day at the onsen, tomorrow morning we’ll put on our disguises and set off to the border town to attend the lantern festival held there. According to Ayame, the one who told me about the festival, it won’t be a grand one, just a small town festival with good food, music and lots of lanterns. Reminded me of the small town festivities I attended when I was younger and I would sneak out of Orochimaru’s hideout.   
I’ve asked the landlord to prepare salt broiled saury and miso soup with eggplant for tonight’s dinner, since they are my husband’s favorite food – fuck that sounds weird, my husband. I still haven’t gotten used to it.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
I wake up with Kakashi’s tongue between my legs – it’s still night time – and his hands on my hips. He licks my slit in one go, making me gasp, then his tongue circles my entrance. I moan and grip his hair as my hips are starting to move of their own accord, but Kakashi places one hand on my lower abdomen and pushes me down. He starts to lick and suck at my clit before pushing one long finger inside of me. I thrash underneath him and tense when he pushes the second finger inside; he’s taking his time, moving his fingers slowly in and out of me, his tongue licking circles around my clit.  
I let out a load moan and roll my hips as he picks up the pace, twisting his fingers inside of me to hit my spot. Waves of pleasure hit me and my body is still trembling with the orgasm when he spoons me, brings one of my legs up and buries himself to the hilt in one go. He starts thrusting in long, deep strokes and one of his hands snakes up my body, between my breasts, until it latches onto my neck.   
I arch against him, whimpering when he digs the fingers of his free hand into my hip, then turns me around and pulls me underneath his body. He parts my thighs, making space for his body between my legs. Kakashi braces his hands next to my head, teasing me by rubbing his erection on my slit; at the same time, he dips his head, capturing my lips in a rapacious kiss, bruising my mouth. My hands are roaming his back and he moans in my mouth when I push my nails in his flesh, hard enough to draw blood.  
He thrusts into me, harder and rougher this time, without breaking the kiss; he pushes his tongue between my lips, swallowing my moans as he drives his hips into mine. I throw my head back and let out a load moan when he buries his face in the crook of my neck, roughly biting the sensitive skin. He’s thrusting wildly now, chasing his own release; I hook my legs behind his back raise my hips, arching my back so he can go even deeper. He rolls his hips, slamming them hard into mine before going still, moaning deeply with his head still buried in the crook of my neck as he shoots hot liquid inside of me. I tense, crying out his name as I reach my climax again and he falls over, barely able to keep his weight off of me.  
We’re both panting as he rolls to his side and softly slides his arm under my body, bringing me closer to him; he traces my swollen lips with his thumb, then dips his head to kiss my forehead. I smile at him and swing a leg over his waist. “What time is it?”   
“Hm, about 3 am,” he replies, gently caressing my side with his calloused hands.  
“Couldn’t sleep?” I ask, stretching my arms and he laughs.   
“It’s your fault for going to bed naked,” he retorts, in a husky voice.  
I chuckle, then twist in his arms, rolling on my belly and offering my back to him. “Massage,” I purr like a spoiled cat, arching my back. He can’t say no this.


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sayuri sings this song:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3me9m5oYSk  
> during the festival she attends with Kakashi.

My mouth drops when I return to our room with the packed food from the landlord and I see Kakashi with purple make up on his eyelids and under his eyes and a brown wig. The make up perfectly covers up his vertical scar and I gasp when he turns his eyes to me – he’s wearing light grey contacts. He laughs when he sees my expression and steps closer to me.  
“Nice disguise,” I say as I reach my arms to touch his wig.   
He wraps his arms around my waist, then plants a quick kiss on my lips. “Ready to go?”  
“Not yet,” I reply, then I kiss him one more time.  
I still have to put on my burgundy red wig; I tie my hair in a low tight bun, then fasten the wig on my head with hair pins. Kakashi hands me my backpack as soon as I’m finished, then we leave the onsen.  
“If we don’t take another break, we’ll reach the border town at nightfall,” he tells me at noon when we stop for lunch and I nod.   
After I finish eating, I make my way to a nearby river to splash some cold water on my face. After relaxing for three days at the onsen, I feel like I’ve become really lazy, which is why I’ve let my guard down so much that I realize someone is behind me when he pushes the tip of a sharp knife in my back.  
“Turn around slowly,” he tells me and I comply. Judging from his appearance, he’s a common thief. “Don’t scream, or I’ll mess up your pretty face,” he says, grinning, as he traces my bottom lip with the tip of knife, then slowly brings it up from the corner of my mouth to my left eye.  
I grip his wrist before he even realizes what’s happening, then twist it so that his knife penetrates his own throat. I kick him in the chest then, pushing him away from me so that his blood doesn’t splatter on my clothes. I wash my hands in the river, making sure they’re spotless and when I return to Kakashi, I find three more thieves unconscious on the ground.  
“Everything okay?” he asks me and I nod. “There are more, hiding among the trees.”  
I groan, passing a hand over my forehead and he chuckles. “I got lazy at the onsen,” I admit, then tie my hair in a low ponytail. “I propose a challenge. The one who defeats less bandits has to perform something in front of everyone at the festival.”  
Kakashi makes a face at me, then shakes his head. “Not going to happen.”  
I shrug, then I throw a kunai in the direction of a large tree; we hear a short scream of pain, before a man falls from a high branch. “One,” I say, grinning.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I can’t believe you beat me,” I scoff, biting on a dango.   
He chuckles when he sees me pouting, then wraps an arm around my shoulders. “I can’t wait to see you perform. What are you going to do?”  
“Disappear from your sight and have you look for me for the remaining two days of our vacation,” I reply, sticking my tongue out at him. “You only won because I didn’t use Sharingan.”  
“Don’t be a sore loser, babe.”  
I hit his side with my elbow and he laughs, so I can’t help but smile.  
It’s late at night when we finally reach the town, but we manage to find a room at a decent looking inn; the festival is not that popular to have the town overflow with tourists, which is why Kakashi agreed to this in the first place. Even with our disguises, it’s not impossible for someone to track the Hokage’s movements, if motivated enough.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“Look, takoyaki! I want some of that, too.”  
Kakashi shakes his head. “It’s the seventh stall, how can you still eat?”  
I pull on the sleeve of his loose shirt, pouting. “I said takoyaki!”  
“Fine, fine,” he sighs as I drag him over to the food stall. He orders for me as I look around for more delicious food, and that’s when I hear it. It’s only the instrumental part of the song, but I’m sure it’s the same one I heard at the last festival I attended.   
I smile and pick up a fried octopus ball when he brings me the paper box filled to the brim, then take his hand, intertwining our fingers. “Ready for my performance?” I ask him, then point to the three men playing the violin a few feet in front of us. I don’t wait for his answer, I throw the golden ball in my mouth and approach them. After confirming the song and asking them to let me sing – they happily agree – I sit down among them, then I wink at Kakashi, grinning. He smiles back at me, surprised; I let the three men play the violin for a whole minute, but when I start singing, his surprise turns into awe. Other people approach too, attracted by my voice.  
As I sing, I feel my eyes fill with tears; the last time I heard this song was also the last time I got to hang out with my best friend before his death. I blink away the tears and never let my voice falter throughout the song and when it’s over, I thank the men and they bow in front of me, beaming at me. The people that gathered around us when I sang had thrown a lot of money in their cardboard boxes.  
“I didn’t know you could sing,” Kakashi tells me when I join him. “Your voice is amazing, Sayuri.”  
“More compliments, please,” I reply and he wraps an arm around my waist, laughing. “I owed you a performance.”  
“I loved it. Is there anything else you want to eat?”  
I nod. “Lets find some fried noodles.”  
I convince him to eat with me, even though he’s not a fan of fried food, then we make our way to the inn.   
We’re both sitting on the edge of the bed and I’m lazily removing his make up, after he had removed his contact lenses, when he says “You’re unusually quiet.”  
“I’m just tired,” I reply, yawning. “I’m also a bit sad that this vacation is almost over.”  
“I promise not to let my responsibilities keep me away from you,” he says, but I wave my hand.  
“I’ll bother you at your office when I don’t train my students to death for the chunin exam, don’t worry,” I tell him, laughing. “There,” I say, gathering the used cleansing disks filled with purple make up. “Shower?”  
“Shower.”


	39. Chapter 39

“Wake up, Kimimaro,” I whisper, chuckling softly.  
I place my hand on his shoulder and shake him gently until he opens his eyes; he blinks at me, then rubs at his eyes. “What are you doing?”  
“It’s the last night of the festival, come with me to see the fireworks, Kimimaro!”  
He groans, then rolls on his side, his back at me. “Go to bed, Sayuri.”  
I pout, then sit on the edge of the bed and shake his shoulder again. “Don’t let me go alone, we had fun the last time we sneaked out.”  
“We’re not kids anymore,” he replies, his voice muffled by the pillow.  
I roll my eyes, then give him a nudge. “Are you sick again?”  
Kimimaro doesn’t reply and I sigh. His body is failing him, he’s always coughing blood when he overexerts himself, but Kabuto can’t heal him and none of the pills he takes are having an effect. I nudge him again so he turns his head to me. He stares at my eyes for a second before saying “I heard about Masamune. How are you?”  
I wave a hand at him. “My eyes are perfectly fine, I’ve just used them on Kabuto. He can’t break my genjutsu.”  
Kimimaro sighs, then sits up on the bed, facing me. I don’t know if it’s my imagination or not, but I think he lost weight. I haven’t seen him for two weeks, as Kabuto had to prepare me and Masamune for the surgery, then it took a while before Kabuto woke me up from the induced coma he had put me in and removed the bandages from my eyes. Masamune’s suicide had me crying for hours, as it was the first time I ever felt guilty about something. But I pushed that guilt away and as soon as Kabuto had entered my room to check up on me, I activated Mangekyou and put him under genjutsu. Orochimaru had to leave to the northern hideout, because he had received a message about Jugo going on a rampage again, so he left Kabuto in charge of me and Kimimaro.  
“I didn’t ask about your eyes, though you look like you’ve been crying.”  
“You’re just imagining things,” I reply, a bit harshly, then get up from the bed. I throw a shirt at him, then make my way to the door. “Are you coming?”  
The white haired boy sighs again and I smile as I close the door behind me, deciding to wait for him on the hallway.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“Stay here,” I tell him as soon as I pick a perfect spot on a hill to watch the fireworks. It’s almost midnight, so the fireworks show will begin any minute now, but I still want something to eat. The best part of a festival is the street food. “What do you want to eat?”  
Kimimaro shrugs, then leans his back against a tree trunk. “Whatever you want to eat,” he replies, then moves his attention to the flowers surrounding us.  
When I come back, he’s still looking at the flowers, gently touching them with his fingers. He’s been feeling depressed since he started feeling sick, because he can no longer become Orochimaru’s vessel. I won’t even pretend to understand why do all these people develop such a strong devotion to Orochimaru. I’m exactly like Kimimaro, a child with unique abilities, that Orochimaru recruited and experimented on. But I don’t want to become Orochimaru’s vessel, I want to become like him, I want to be his most trusted partner when it comes to experiments.  
“Can you hear that?” Kimimaro asks me as I sit down next to him. I’ve bought takoyaki and dango, and I set the paper boxes filled to the brim with food between us.  
I nod as I hear the song and we both close our eyes, caught by the sound of music. I like this song, I’ll have to remember it, I think to myself as I do my best to memorize the lyrics and the melody.  
I place my hand on his shoulder and squeeze gently when the fireworks show begins and I smile at him when he turns to look me questioningly.  
“Have you given it more thought?” he asks me.  
I raise an eyebrow and he continues “About becoming Orochimaru’s vessel in case Uchiha Sasuke can’t be persuaded to come to us.”  
I shake my head and he looks away. “Can I trust you, Kimimaro?” I suddenly say, snapping his attention back to me. I clear my voice and pause for a few seconds, debating whether I should speak about my secret. “Remember when Kabuto lost the vial of Sasuke’s blood he brought from Konoha? Or when Orochimaru complained about the disappearance of the snake that had my other brother’s blood, Itachi, on it’s fangs?”  
Kimimaro nods and I resist the urge to push a few strands of his silvery white hair away from his face. “Remember when I told you Kabuto had sent me to take some of your blood for testing?”  
He nods again and I continue “I don’t want to become Orochimaru’s vessel because I’m creating a better one for him.”  
Kimimaro’s eyes widen as I tell him about the Uchiha and Kaguya hybrid I’ve created – I lie to him and tell him that I’m still developing it, but the truth is that the embryo is already inside a young woman, a prisoner from the hideout Orochimaru had assigned to me after I announced him I want to try my hand with experiments. The medical ninjas that helped with the surgery are already dead and buried, since I didn’t want any witnesses.  
“So you see, this new vessel will have everyting our master has ever wanted, your clan’s kekkei genkai and stamina and my clan’s Sharingan,” I finish, looking at him. “But don’t tell Orochimaru – sama anything about this, in case I fail.”  
Kimimaro nods, smiling, then takes a fried octopus ball. “I promise to keep this a secret if you promise to take my place as a herald when I’m dead.”  
I scoff, then fill my mouth with food so I don’t have to reply. Eventually, I have to promise, because he just won’t let it go. And that’s the last festival we get to attend together.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Kimimaro’s body had completely failed him during the Fourth Kazekage’s assassination, so Orochimaru had me take him back to the hideouts and Kabuto had placed him in intense medical care.  
He’s got so many tubes attached to him that render him unable to move. I sit on the edge of his bed, staring at the Cursed Seal of Earth on his chest and I feel his hand weakly searching for mine.  
“Can you sing that song for me?” he whispers and I know exactly what song he’s talking about.  
I comply and sing for him, struggling to keep my voice steady and ignoring the tears going down my cheeks. My eyes are still settled on his cursed seal and that’s the moment I get the idea of having two curse marks on my body.  
“Thank you,” he murmurs when I’m finished, coughing a few times.  
I love you, I want to tell him, but it’s no use. He’s my best friend and he’s dying, depressed that he can no longer be of use to Orochimaru. My experiment was a succes, I want to say. His name is Akira and he was born a healthy child. The surrogate mother died during childbirth, but I have enough medical ninjas at my hideout to take care of him properly.  
I’ll never let Orochimaru use Akira as a vessel, I realize at that moment; he’s too precious a memento of Kimimaro.  
When Orochimaru comes at the hideout to check if Kimimaro can be used in the attack on Konoha he had planned, I tell him about my idea of having him place a second curse mark on me.  
“Too risky,” he retorts as an end to the conversation. But I’m not having it; every time an idea makes its way into my head, I’m relentless in pursuing it.  
That’s how I end up writhing in pain, sealed for weeks inside a special barrel by the Sound Four, the team of shinobi subordinated to Kimimaro.  
When I wake up, I’m can barely move and my body feels like an open wound; memories of me transforming into a dragon and coming out of the sealed barrel fill my mind, assuring me the experiment was a success.  
“You’re finally awake,” Kabuto tells me, adjusting his glasses. “We’ve lost all hope already, you’ve been paralyzed for a few days now.”  
He tells me about the failed invasion and how the Third Hokage gave his life to seal Orochimaru’s ability for ninjutsu. However, there is a good thing coming our way; Sasuke has accepted Orochimaru’s offer for power and is coming our way.  
“Kimimaro left to help the others bring Sasuke – kun to us,” Kabuto says, finishing up the story. “He won’t be in time, I’m afraid, Orochimaru has already chosen another vessel. His current body couldn’t support him anymore.”  
Kabuto sends me to heal and bandage Sasuke’s injuries when he finally arrives at the hideout; he’s badly wounded and dizzy from the blood loss, so when he sees my face for the first time, before losing his consciousness, he calls me “Mom?”.  
I can’t help but hate him; he’s arrogant and defiant, always going on and on about his revenge on Itachi. I hate him because of the way Orochimaru is looking at him. I refuse to train with him in the beginning, but I come around eventually. After a while together, I’m satisfied with the Chidori technique he taught me, he’s using his Sharingan at full potential and we have developed Chidori Nagashi together. It’s up to Orochimaru to teach him how to use the Kusanagi sword, just like he taught me, so I decide to take my leave and go back to my hideout, my experiments…and Akira.


	40. Chapter 40

I raise my head to look up at the sky when the fireworks show begins. I’m sitting between Kakashi’s legs, with my back pressed to his chest and he leans with his back against a tree trunk. I can’t help but chuckle when I take his hand and clink our matching bracelets together.  
Earlier that evening, I came up with the idea of searching for presents for each other – I also bought lots of sweets and souvenirs for my three students. An hour later, when we met in front of a dango shop, we discovered that the exact same thing has picked our interests: a silver bracelet that can only be opened with a small ornate key, that can be worn as a necklace. Neither of us can take off that bracelet without having the other open it with their key.  
I’ve added the key to the other charms I’m already wearing around my neck, and Kakashi slipped his on a long leather cord that he’s now wearing underneath his clothes. Yes, we’re becoming that couple – we probably make everyone else gag with our romance.   
Kakashi wrapps his arms around me, pulling me closer and pressing a kiss on the nape of my neck. He’s still wearing his disguise, but I gave up on my wig for tonight and opted for a twin buns hairstyle. He couldn’t stop making fun of me and squeezing the buns in his hands when he first saw my hairstyle.  
“I love you,” he whispers in my ear before kissing my nape again. I don’t reply, still watching the fireworks, so he says it louder. I chuckle, still ignoring him and that’s when he presses his teeth hard into my skin.   
I yelp, surprised, then turn in his arms. “What was that for?”  
“What?” he looks at me with a confused expression, but his eyes are playful.   
“You bit me,” I reply, wriggling in his arms and trying to bit his jawline, but he’s keeping me tight.   
I clank my teeth together a few times, snapping at him and he laughs. “Isn’t that a bit extreme?”  
“I didn’t pull ot my fangs now, did I?”   
“At least you’re not swearing anymore, you’ve improved a lot, babe.”  
“Don’t be a dick,” I retort, grinning and he shakes his head at me. “Are you ready to light our lantern and call it a night?”  
He nods, then gets up and helps me up as well; it takes a while to light it with normal matches and I laugh every time Kakashi is tempted to use Fire or Wind Release, but eventually the lantern rises. I wrap my arms around Kakashi’s waist and rest my head on his chest when our lantern joins the others – the sky is filled with so many lanterns, they look like fire stars. He kisses the top of my head first, then places both hands on my neck, angling my head so he can place his lips on mine. He rests his forehead on mine, smiling lovingly at me.  
“I love you, too.”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“Did you miss me?” I ask my three students when I meet them.  
It’s the morning after me and Kakashi came home after our week away from the village; he had to get up early to attend a meeting with the elders, but I had the luxury of sleeping in because there was no mission awaiting me.  
“Gods, yes,” Hatsumomo groans. “These two idiots don’t take the training seriously, they think they will become chunin just like that,” she adds, snapping her fingers.   
I chuckle in surprise, then lift my palms up. “It’s okay, I’ve been gone for only one week.” Unfortunately.   
“Hatsumomo had a fight with Akio, one of the genins from Neji – sensei’s team,” Hisao informs me and Hatsumomo looks ready to strangle him.  
“Did you win?” I ask her.  
The dark haired girl nods, then folds her arms over her chest defiantly. She thinks I’m going to lecture her. Hisao is also looking at me, expecting the same lecture, only Akira arches his lips in an amused smile. He knows me too well.  
“Good, then I see no problem,” I say next.   
Hisao bawls his eyes out. “There is a problem! They promised us a fight, their team versus our team, when we least expect it.”  
“Don’t worry, Hisao, I’ll talk to Neji and put at end to this shit. I don’t want you to waste your time with pointless fights like that, if they want to fight you as a team, they’ll have a chance at the second round of the chunin exam.”  
“Or we could have that fight, but with our sensei as well,” Hatsumomo suggests, cracking her knuckles.  
“That’s a good idea,” Akira intervenes. “It’s good practice for the chunin exams.”  
I sigh dramatically and shake my head. “Hisao?”  
The brunet looks at Akira, who nods at him with a smile, then turns his head to face Hatsumomo, who glares at him and runs her thumb over her neck in a cutting motion.  
“Yeah,” he murmurs, “it seems like a good idea.”  
I groan. “I’ve just come back from vacation, guys, cut me some slack…I’ll talk to Neji.”  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I don’t know,” Neji says, cupping his chin with his hand, thinking. “My students are pressuring me to accept as well, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea. The chunin exam is in four months.”  
“My point exactly,” I reply, drinking some green tea from my cup.   
“I bet they are using this as an excuse to see what dojutsu is stronger, Sharingan or Byakugan,” Tenten intervenes, chuckling. “I’m curious too, to be honest.”  
I scoff and say “Everyone knows Sharingan is better” at the same time as Neji speaks in a superior tone “Byakugan would always win.”  
We glare at each other and Tenten raises her palms up. “Come on, guys, don’t be like that.”  
“After all, we could have a mock battle one of these days,” Neji tells me, still glaring at me.  
“Get ready to lose, prick,” I respond, grinning.


	41. Chapter 41

It’s one month before the chunin exam when we finally get to have our teams fight each other, because Kakashi kept sending us in missions or I had to go to Orochimaru’s hideout for some research regarding his synthetic organs experiment.  
We’ve decided to organize it like a game and not a real fight, so my team gets a blue scroll, Neji’s team gets a red scroll. The team without a scroll at the end of the game loses. The rule is not to injure the genins beside cuts and bruises that can heal before the chunin exam, which is what me and Neji are here to prevent. However, at the end of the game, the sensei of the winning team gets the scrolls and has to fight the other sensei for one hour. The real winner is the one with the scrolls when the time is up.  
It’s late in the afternoon and the game will soon be over. I’m casually sitting on a tree branch, swinging my legs, while the genins are running around, hiding among the trees and setting traps for each other.   
I close my eyes, yawn and stretch my arms above my head, then lean back to avoid a flying kunai. I open my eyes and settle them on the black haired kid staring at me menacingly.  
“Can I help you? Hideo, right?” I ask him in a mocking voice. I know his name is Naoki, Hideo is a Hyuuga, it’s impossible to confuse them, but I can’t help but ruffle his feathers a little.  
“Naoki,” he growls at me, taking another kunai from his hip pouch.   
I chuckle and let myself fall graciously on the ground, then motion with my index finger for him to come at me. He lounges at me, but Neji jumps between us and catches the boy by his forearm.   
“What are you doing?” Neji growls at him, then removes his hand from the boy’s arm.  
“Akira burnt our scroll with his fire jutsu,” Naoki says, gritting his teeth.   
“Well, then, I guess my team wins for now,” I reply, laughing.   
I look around and see Hideo, Hisao and Akira approaching us. Neji squints his eyes, looking at them. “Where are the other two?”  
Hideo shrugs, but his eyes briefly meet Naoki’s for a second. I roll my eyes and Neji sighs, then activates his Byakugan. “This way.”  
We find them deeper in the forest, in time to see Akio slap Hatsumomo with the back of his hand and the girl tackling him to the ground. She manages to punch him twice before I circle her body with my arms and pull her off of Akio. The boy immediately gets up and tries to jump on us, but Neji grips his shoulders, keeping him in place. There’s blood dripping from his nose and one of he’s got a black eye, whereas Hatsumomo only has a red swollen cheek.  
“Call me a freak one more time and I’ll rip your tongue out,” Hatsumomo yells at Akio, thrashing in my arms.   
“Aw, you got that line for me, Hatsu – chan,” I say, laughing.  
Neji, though, is not amused. “How about you teach her some discipline?”  
“How about you teach your student not to slap a girl’s face?” I retort. “Her cheek will be as good as new after some ice, but that black eye and swollen nose…eh, he was ugly beforehand.”  
Akio starts thrashing in Neji’s arms and I can’t help but laugh some more.   
“Enough!”  
Neji puts so much force in that one word that all the genin shut up and straighten their backs.   
“Sayuri, take the remaning scroll and let’s get this over with,” he tells me, anger in his voice.  
“Put some ice on that cheek, Hatsu – chan,” I tell Hatsumomo, then remove my hands from her body.   
Akira hands me the remaining scroll, the blue one, before the students step away from us, giving us space. I put the scroll behind my back, securing it in the rope like belt keeping my loose shirt together, then activate my Sharingan.   
Neji activates Byakugan, then takes his stance, which I recognize from the war, when we fought together in the Second Division, so I draw my sword. I believe I have a better chance against him in long range combat, given that I know where his blind spot is. At the same time, I know I’m fast enough to dodge his Gentle Fists fighting style for a short while, if he forces me into close combat. He’s better than me at taijutsu and I believe he is fast enough to escape Amaterasu for a while, but that’s a technique I can’t use inside the village, it’s too destructive and I don’t have Sasuke’s ability to control and stop the black flames.  
I take the sleeves of my shirt off, then let it hang around my waist, before drawing chakra from my curse mark and releasing my dragon wings. I place my palm on the ground, using Chidori Nagashi to send lightning current through the ground in Neji’s direction, then fly away, putting some distance between us.   
Neji jumps, avoiding the current, then throws some kunai in shuriken in my direction. I manage to dodge them with my sword, then force my wings to take me higher, barely avoiding a hit to a vital spot from Neji, who sneaked behind by running along a tree branch. Instead of letting him take the scroll, I sacrifice my right arm, thus he manages to hit the tenketsu on my right shoulder, so I barely have time to transfer the sword to my left hand.   
I rise above the trees, cursing. Neither me, nor Neji can actually hide from the other because of the dojutsu, so I’m tempted to fly high enough to prevent him from reaching me. My Sharingan registers his movement when he climbs the highest tree to its top, then he releases chakra from his feet to jump high enough to reach me. I infuse my sword with lightning chakra, then elongate it before attacking Neji, aiming for his waist. I manage to cause only a superficial cut, but I know it’s painful because of the lightning current.  
He grits his teeth, pushing away the pain as he grabs my leg with enough force to throw me to the ground. I gasp as I hit the ground, but I’m only bruised, as my wings have absorbed the impact. I manage to get up fast enough to avoid his next attack, then jump far away from him. I concentrate my chakra and use Chidori Senbon, another technique me and Sasuke developed together. It creates thousands sharp senbon made of lightning that I can fire at the enemy in rapid succession. Not even Neji can deflect every one of them with his technique Eight Trigams Palms Revolving Heaven, I notice after he finishes his technique and supports his whole weight on his left leg only.  
He attacks me again; his taijutsu skills outclass mine, but with his now injured right leg, I can avoid hits to my chakra points. He pretends to lose his footing, trying to bait me, but I see through his intentions. I grab the hilt of my sword, infusing it with lightning chakra again, then throw it at him like it were a spear. He jumps back, avoiding it, but the moment the sword is stuck in the ground, I activate Chidori Nagashi again, catching him in the lightning current.  
I’m panting as I approach him as he is lying on the ground and release my wings to save my remaining chakra. However, as soon as I’m close enough, he twists his body and tries to hit me hard with his leg. I spin around, avoiding his kick, but he manages to steal the scroll from me as he gets up in a swift motion.   
I extend my arm, grabbing the other end of the scroll; I transform my free hand in dragon claws and prepare to hit him at the same time as Neji goes for a chakra point on my forearm, when Hatsumomo yells “Time’s up!”.  
“It has already been an hour?” I ask, chuckling as I transform my hand back.  
I place my hand on my right shoulder, as it still hurts after Neji’s hit. Actually, my whole back hurts from the earlier impact.  
“Are you okay?” he asks me.  
I nod, watching him; he’s protecting his injured leg and has a palm pressed on his side. “You?”  
“Just a scratch.”  
We look at each other for a while, before I extend my right hand and Neji takes it with his. It’s been a good fight and neither of us went all out, but we can call it a draw, since both of our hands were on the scroll.  
“Sharingan is still better,” I inform him, sticking my tongue out at him.  
“In your dreams,” he replies arrogantly.


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smutty chapter, long time no see! :D

“What happened to your back?” Kakashi asks me in concern, later that night, when he comes home from the office.   
I’ve just come out of the shower, wrapped in a fluffy white towel. “Just a fight with Neji. It was a draw,” I groan, then drop face first into the bed. “Go have a shower and I’ll set the table for you, then tell you all about it, okay?”  
I get dressed in a silk kimono, then I set the table, placing bowls of food I cooked earlier. I prepare a whiskey highball for him and hand the glass to him as soon as he joins me at the table. He’s wearing black loose pants and a grey shirt that he didn’t bother to button up. Yum.  
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” he tells me, smiling when he sees me taking a bowl of rice.  
“Eh, don’t worry about it,” I reply, laughing. I can always eat a second dinner. “Did anything interesting happen at your meeting today?”  
“We discussed about the chunin exam, tomorrow at noon I’ll call all the jonins to see who recommends their team of genins, then have Shizune prepare the necessary documents. You’ll be proctor of the preliminary fights, then Genma will take your place during the final round matches.”  
I nod, then tell him about the fight between mine and Neji’s team earlier today. “My students are ready for this exam, I’m not too worried, I’m sure at least one of them will pass.”  
“Akira?”  
I shrug. “We’ll see, he doesn’t seem to care about becoming a chunin, Hatsumomo is more motivated.”  
“You’ve trained them really hard these past few months, you’ve turned them into small copies of yourself,” he chuckles. “You even gave them copies of your Kusanagi sword.”  
“I didn’t let them use the swords in today’s fight with Neji’s team, that’s supposed to be a surprise for the preliminary fights.” I pause, eating in silence for a few minutes. “I’ve done my research on the abilities of the Yuki Clan when I last visited Orochimaru. If Hatsumomo passes, I’ll send her to Suigetsu and Orochimaru for the one month training.”  
“Are you asking me or telling me this?”  
“Both, I guess?”  
He pushes his fingers through his hair, sighing. “Let’s talk about this after the preliminary fights, okay?”  
“All three will pass,” I reply, frowning. “And I can’t train all of them in one month. I was hoping to train only Akira and teach him Chidori.”  
“You don’t know that,” he retorts and I groan in annoyance. “Just be patient.”  
“Ugh, fine,” I accept, throwing my hands up. “Why do you always do this?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“You force me to agree with you. I always become obsessed with proving you wrong…”  
He rolls his eyes. “When did you ever prove me wrong?”  
I gasp, placing a hand over my chest. “Oh, you’re so in for it!” I exclaim, then throw myself on top of him. I wrap my hands loosely around his neck and start shaking him. “Don’t tickle me, you idiot!” I scream, bursting out laughing when he pushes his hands under my kimono and starts tickling my sides.  
I straddle him, then bend down to capture his bottom lip between my teeth, pressing hard on it. He grips my hips and I let my palms travel on his body, roaming them on his muscled chest. I roll my hips once, twice and I feel him starting to harden underneath my body. He removes his hands from my hips and pushes one up my body, cupping one of my breasts. I whimper and push my head back when he captures my nipple between his thumb and index finger and presses on it. He presses his other hand on my lower back, bringing me flush against him. Kakashi runs his tongue over my lower lip, then captures my mouth in a bruising kiss. He presses me harder against his body, his hips moving on their own accord underneath me, pushing his rock hard erection into me.  
I break the kiss and get up, then pretend to yawn. “I’m tired, I’ve had a long day,” I say, looking at the bulge in his pants. “I’m going to bed,” I add, turning my back to him so he can’t see me laughing silently.  
Kakash scoffs, then gets up immediately and pushes me into a nearby wall, pressing his body into mine. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asks me, his voice a bit hoarse.  
I chuckle and he spins me around and gently presses me against the wall, because he remembers that my back is bruised – this combination of rough and gentle always makes me melt. He parts my thighs with his knees, making space for his body, then swings one of my legs around him, his palm pressed on the back of my thigh. His fingers are calloused, but his touch is gentle on my skin.  
Kakashi lowers his head, planting a soft kiss on the corner of my mouth, before capturing my lips in a rapacious kiss. I moan in his mouth when he moves his palm to my buttock, squeezing it hard and he slips his tongue between my lips. I tangle one hand into his silver hair and snake my other arm around his neck, at the same time when he circles my waist with his free arm, raising me off the ground. I wrap my legs tight around him and he rolls his hips into mine, making me gasp.  
He’s leisurely devouring my neck, licking and nipping occasionally as he walks with me in his arms towards the bed. He sets me gently on the bed as he unties my kimono, taking in my naked body; I place the soles on my feet on his shoulders, then dip my toes underneath his shirt, pushing it off his body.  
“I always think about you during meetings,” he tells me, his voice low as he grabs one of my legs and moves his lips across my calf before digging his teeth in the soft flesh.   
“I bet you are,” I reply, licking my lips. I hook my legs behind his back, bringing him closer. “No more teasing, I want you now.”  
He alignes his cock with my entrance and I throw my head back when he starts pushing inside, letting out a loud moan when he’s fully sheathed. I feel my walls stretching to adjust to his large size and I arch my back, gasping for air when one of his hands encircles my throat and squeezes lightly. His thrusts are slow, but deep and powerful and he’s tearing moans out of me with his every stroke.  
I lift one of my legs over his shoulder, then he brings my other one up as well, encircling them with his arms as he starts thrusting even harder, grunting. His biceps ripple with every thrust and I close my eyes, moaning even louder because the new angle allows him to go even deeper than before. His pace is maddening and I’m already tightening around him.  
“Harder, Kakashi, please,” I cry out, my voice breaking when my body tenses.   
He buries himself to the hilt and goes still when I clench around him and the waves of pleasure hit me, bending his head to capture one of my nipples in his mouth. He sucks and bites on it and I thrash underneath him, crying out his name.  
Kakashi places his hands on my waist, turning me around, before gripping my arms and bringing them behind my back. He uses the cord from my kimono to tie my hands, wrapping the material tight around my wrists. I immediately tense and feel my heart start beating faster as I try to move my hands, tugging at the binding. I get up, so now I’m on my knees, with my back to him and he places his hands on my shoulders.  
“Shh, trust me,” Kakashi murmurs into my ear and I swallow hard. One of his hands grips my hair, pulling my head to the side as he places his lips on my neck, sucking and biting at the skin there. I gasp and try to move my hands again; I whimper when his hand tightens into my hair. He licks the shell of my year, biting on my earlobe before commanding in a rough voice “Stop moving your hands, Sayuri”.  
I feel my back straighten under his command and he cups one of my breasts with his free hand, kneading on it. I arch into him, gritting my teeth instead of moving my tied up hands.  
“Good girl,” he tells me and I want to growl at him. I’m not used to being submissive and open my mouth to make a snappy remark at him, when his hand travels south on my body and settles between my legs, his middle finger moving in circles on my clit. A moan escapes my mouth, instead, when he slips said finger inside of me, adding another one after a few strokes.  
When he feels me tightening around his fingers he pushes me down on the bed, so that he can penetrate me from behind. He grips my tied wrists, pulling on my hair at the same time as he buries himself to the hilt in one go. He releases my hair, then places both hands on my hips, pushing hard into me. His thrusts are erratic this time, fast and powerful, making me dizzy with pleasure. I’m close to reaching my climax again when I feel him falter and lose his rhythm as he thrusts hard, chasing his own release.  
He presses his chest on my back, reaching one of his hands between my legs to press his fingers to my clit and I scream, tightening around him and making him come as well. Kakashi collapses on the bed beside me and we’re both breathing hard.  
“Untie me,” I request as soon as I come down from my high and my thoughts return to the material around my wrists.   
He complies, undoing the knot and removing the cord. I sit up, rubbing at my wrists and he wraps his arms around my body, bringing me flush against him.  
“Are you alright?” he asks me after a few seconds of silence.  
“This was…unexpectedly hot,” I admit, still looking at the faint red line on my wrists. “You’ve never tied me up before.”  
“The thought came to me during the last meeting, as I was thinking about you and playing with a string.”  
“I see. Well, tomorrow during the meeting with the other jonin, I’ll ask, Hokage – sama, did you get any new idea for when you fuck me tonight?” I say, batting my lashes at him.  
He passes a hand over his eyes, sighing. “Please, don’t, I know you’re capable of that.”  
I start laughing, but yelp when he bites my shoulder. I wriggle from his arms, then push him on his back and straddle him, slowly moving my body against his. “I have nowhere to be until the meeting at noon, you know…”  
He grips my hips, smiling. “I’m not done with you, either.”


	43. Chapter 43

“Isn’t it too soon for Team 15 and Team 10 to participate in the chunin exams?”  
Me and Neji snap our heads at the same time in the direction of the jonin who talked, after we recommended our teams for the exam.  
Iruka has the audacity to sigh in relief – he already tried to talk both me and Neji out of nominating our teams, because the chunin exam is dangerous, people die, our students are too young, blah blah blah. Kakashi told me that Iruka does this every year, so I shouldn’t mind him. He apparently was so distrustful of Kakashi when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were his students, back in the day, that he tested the kids himself.  
“How about you mind your own damn business?” I whisper to the jonin. Neji frowns at the man, thus supporting me.  
Kakashi motions for the middle aged jonin to speak, so he clears his voice before continuing “The oldest are barely twelve years old, not to mention the youngest is what, five or six? In case they pass the written exam, they might lose their lives in the second round, it’s the Forest of Death again. They will be facing older and more experienced shinobi, not to mention the dangers the Forest itself presents.”  
If I roll my eyes one more time, I’ll see the back of my head. But okay, let them underestimate my students. I fold my arms over my chest and let Neji argue with the man and Iruka, who joined the discussion. Eventually, everyone is voicing their opinion; some believe there should be an age limit to allowing genins to participate, others think that every genin has the right to participate, regardless of age or experience. The rounds of the chunin exam are especially designed to filter out those who are not worthy yet.  
I tap my foot angrily, because I can see Kakashi very well; his posture gives away the fact that he’s holding a book underneath his desk. Shikamaru clears his voice and nudges Kakashi with his elbow when he notices me staring.  
“Enough,” the Hokage speaks suddenly, closing his book. “During the second round, there will be enough jonins and chunins hidden in the Forest, ready to pull genins out if they are on the verge of dying and take them to the medical teams waiting outside the Forest.”  
His dismissive tone shuts everyone up, so Shizune uses this pause to give every jonin an envelope with three application forms.   
~~~~~~~~~~  
I’ve never seen Hatsumomo as nervous as she is, one day before the first round, the written exam. She’s been tapping her foot and wrapping strands of hair around her fingers ever since we’ve gathered in the ramen shop. I decided to treat them to some ramen before the exam and encourage them if they need it. I’m happy with their progress so far, both at swordmanship and jutsu. Hatsumomo’s bloodline limit, Ice Release, also allows her to use Wind and Water Chakra Nature separately, so she can infuse the Kusanagi sword with her wind chakra, enabling it to cut through anything. Akira and Hisao are both Fire users, but because I used both mine and Sasuke’s DNA when I created him, Akira can use Lightning Release as if it were his main affinity. Thus, he can infuse his blade with lightning and elongate it, his technique is similar to mine, whereas Hisao turns his blade in a flaming sword with his Fire Release. When they fight as a team, Hisao uses his Shadow Imitation Technique to keep the enemy in place until Hatsumomo and Akira attack, but I’ve trained him to be able to fight on his own and in case he can’t use his Shadow Techniques.   
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I’ll have to leave on a diplomatic trip to Sunagakure and Iwagakure after the chunin exam is over,” Kakashi informs me later that night.  
I’m sitting on his desk, swinging my legs and reading while waiting for him to finish his work for the day. I close the book and set it on my lap, raising my head to look at him.  
“How long will you be gone?”  
“A month or so. What, you’re not coming with me?” he asks, surprised.  
“I don’t know,” I reply.   
He circles my ankle with his hand, squeezing lightly. “It’s a bit too late to play hard to get, babe, you’ve already married me.”  
I start laughing, then rest my chin on my hands. “I’ll come with you, don’t worry, I’ll be your must trusted bodyguard.”  
I pick up my book again when Shizune comes into the office, a stack of documents in her arms. It’s going to be a long night.


	44. Chapter 44

The jonins whose teams will pass the written exam are not allowed to enter the Forest of Death during the second round. However, we’ve all gathered at the gates, waiting to see how many of our students have passed.   
Like usual, the genins have to use their abilities to cheat without being caught, but the first nine questions don’t matter – Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first round is still teasing Naruto about his first chunin exam, when he passed the written exam without writing anything on his paper. It’s the tenth question that decides who passes and who fails. You never know what that tenth question will be about, because Ibiki always makes it up on the spot.   
I’m sitting on a tree branch next to Neji and we’re both stuffing our faces with takoyaki. Since I had nothing to do before coming hereand I was bored at home, I prepared a large amount of fried octopus balls and brought them with me.  
“Are you nervous?” he asks me, pointing with his skewer at my swinging legs.  
I shake my head, picking another golden ball with my skewer. “You?”  
“I discussed several scenarios with them, similar to the tenth question I got during my chunin exams. They may be hotheads, but they’re not idiots.”  
I hear someone say that the genins are coming, so both me and Neji jump down from the branch we were sitting on. When we see both our teams approaching, we bump our fists together. There are twenty eight teams, thus only fourteen will be able to participate in the preliminary fights. That means fourty two genins fighting each other until only twenty one will advance to the final rounds. I sure hope three out of those twenty one genins will be my students.  
In the second round, the genins will have to spend five days in the Forest of Death. Each team will be given a scroll – there are two types, the Scroll of Heaven and the Scroll of Earth. Only the teams that have both scrolls and reach the tower at the end of the forest will advance to the preliminary fights.   
I can’t help but smile when I see my students; Akira looks like he’s the same age as the other two, so I make a mental note to remind Orochimaru about the medicine he promised me. All three are wearing similar outfits, black pants, mesh armor on the upper part of their body and loose shirts, held together by purple rope – like belts, where they also keep their swords. Akira looks so much like Kimimaro, now that he’s dressed like this.   
“I can’t believe someone as stupid as you passed that difficult written exam,” Akio tells Hatsumomo, grinning. He opens his mouth to throw another insult, when Hideo places a hand on his arm. “Knock it off.”  
Hatsumomo frowns at them both, then rolls her eyes when Hideo winks at her. She turns her back to the boys and ties her hair in a high ponytail and Hisao stares Hideo down, running his thumb across his neck in a cutting motion.  
I hear Neji sigh beside me. “Idiots,” he mutters, shaking his head and I laugh. “Hopeless idiots”.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
The preliminary fights are held in a dome like construction next to the tower at the end of the Forest of Death, right after the second round is finished. The jonins of the teams that made it to the tower with both scrolls are gathered at the second floor – Neji and me as well. I also recognize Temari and Kankuro in the crowd. Eventually, the fourteen teams enter the building, reuniting with their jonins. I’m proud of my students for making it to the preliminary rounds without visible wounds on them and after congratulated them, I take my place in the middle of the arena on the first floor, being the proctor.  
After telling them the rules, I call the first two genins to the arena. No matter how long it will take, we will all stay here until the fights are over.   
Hatsumomo fights against Akio of all people, but the beating she gave him will probably keep him away from her for a long time. Hideo and Naoki have already finished their fights, thus Neji has two students in the final rounds.   
Everything goes smooth until it’s Hisao’s turn to fight against a shinobi from the Sand. He’s the second puppeteer from Kankuro’s team; the first one lost against Hideo, since the Hyuga boy’s Byakugan could easily defeat the Puppet Technique.  
What Hisao didn’t know was that his opponent had two puppets, not just one, like his other teammate. Hisao lured the genin with his Shadow Technique, then attacked him with his flaming sword, setting his puppet on fire. Thinking he won, he let his guard down, and that’s when his opponent used his chakra to control the second puppet, a smaller one he had hidden inside the main puppet. The second puppet could spit lots of poisoned senbon from its mouth, so Hisao wasn’t able to deflect all of them with his sword and kunai.   
I curse under my breath when Hisao falls to the ground, with a few needles protruding from his left arm, his body shaking and convulsing. I prepare to declare the Sand shinobi a winner when I notice him throwing a kunai at Hisao, that’s coated with the same black substance as the senbon. I step between them, catching the kunai with my hand, intentionally letting it stab my palm so I can test the poison.  
I curse again, because my body recognizes it, its deadly if you don’t administer the antidote fast enough. I push my other hand in my hip pouch, taking out a small vial and calling the medical ninja as soon as I’m done declaring the Sand genin a winner. I throw the vial at one of the medics, asking him to administer the antidote to Hisao as soon as possible. I turn an angry look at Hisao’s opponent, but I don’t say anything to him; in the heat of the battle, some forget to stop attacking, even if their rival is already on the ground.  
I see Hatsumomo running away from her place on the above level, probably to check up on Hisao; Akira doesn’t move from his spot, because he didn’t have his fight yet. I crack my neck, then call the next genins; by the time they finish their fight, my body has already neutralized the poison and I want these fights to be over soon, so I can check on Hisao too.  
Akira and a genin from Otogakure are the last ones to fight; the kid is good a genjutsu, but it’s hard to place a Sharingan user under genjutsu. It doesn’t take long before Akira baits his opponent into close combat. The moment the boy from the Sound tries to hit him in the chest with his leg, Akira manipulates his ribs stick out through his skin and catch his rival’s leg in a cage of sharp bones. The Sound genins yells in pain when multiple bones pierce his leg. Akira takes out his sword, infusing it with lightning chakra before pointing it at the boy’s neck. The black haired boy’s Sharingan eyes are turned to me, waiting patiently. I don’t get to stop the fight, because the Sound genin admits defeat.   
After I declare Akira the winner and call the medical nins to take his opponent away and heal him, I declare the preliminary fights have ended. One month from now, the final round matches will take place in the main arena in Konoha.


	45. Chapter 45

“Don’t be so sad, Hisao, you’ll be better next time,” I tell the Nara boy, before I offer him a peeled apple slice.   
He nods, then pushes his shaking hand towards the slice. He’s still feeling the effects of the poison, but he’s much better now. Hatsumomo is faster, though, and she snatches it from me. Hisao looks down, depressed and the girl sighes, stopping before biting into the piece.  
“Here, take it,” she says, rolling her eyes, pushing the apple slice between his lips.  
I chuckle and Hisao blushes, staring at her with wide eyes, but Hatsumomo seems oblivious to his look.  
“Who are you going to train for the final round, Sayuri – sama?” Akira suddenly asks me, drawing everyone’s attention to him.  
“Let’s talk about it later, okay?”  
“Let’s talk about it now,” Hatsumomo says, raising an eyebrow at me. “It’s obvious who you’re going to pick, so let’s think about a suitable tutor for me, because I intend to win.”  
After an intense debate with Kakashi and Shikamaru, we came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t spark so much tension if, instead of sending Hatsumomo alone to Orochimaru, I would accompany her together with Akira and train them both at the hideouts, since everyone has already made peace with the idea that I’m helping my former master with his experiments.  
Hatsumomo blushes and looks away when I mention Suigetsu could help her learn some new water style techniques, but Hisao looks even more depressed. I’m honestly wondering when will Hatsumomo notice that Hisao is in love with her.  
“You should come with us, too, Hisao,” I tell him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “With your intelligence and chakra control, you could learn a lot from Orochimaru, he’s truly a genius.”  
The boy shrugs, not looking at me. “Shikamaru – san is surely very disappointed in me. I don’t know, that means I’ll spend a whole month at that weird hideout?”  
“Take your time and decide, we’re leaving tomorrow at damn, through the Northern Gate.”  
I place the plate with peeled apple slices on the bedstand, then get up, leaving the hospital room with Akira and Hatsumomo.  
I’m not surprised, the next morning, when I find Hisao together with the other two at Northern Gate.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
It has been two weeks since I arrived at the hideouts with my students.   
Hatsumomo has been training like crazy with both Suigetsu and Orochimaru; the latter has taken a real interest in her, had it not been the current situation, I’m sure she would have become part of his collection of special kids. I can’t help but imagine how much more powerful Hatsumomo would be after a few years of Orochimaru experimenting on her. I managed to teach Akira how to use Chidori, but he takes to long to activate it and uses too much chakra at the moment, so he can only use it once during a fight. I’m not too worried, we’ve still got another half of the promised month, but I can’t help but notice that Hatsumomo is making progress faster.  
Hisao is still afraid of Orochimaru, but he accepted the research tips my former master gave him; he’s currently studying different types of poisons and how to counter them.   
This evening, Akira is with Orochimaru, because he wants to perform some tests on the hybrid again, Hatsumomo is somewhere training with Suigetsu and Hisao.  
“Did you see Hisao’s face when Hatsu asked him to help her with her training this evening? He beamed at her.” Karin asks me, laughing.   
I nod, chuckling as I fill both our cups with sake. We’re supposed to perform some tests on Orochimaru’s synthetic organs, but the bottle of sake seemed much more appealing.   
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m surprised you’re not pregnant yet.”  
I choke on the sake, surprised. “What?”  
“Still taking the pills?”  
“Does it look like I have time for kids right now? What’s gotten into you?”  
Karin starts laughing. “Oh come on, you know I like small children. I think yours would be so cute! Tiny and murderous.”  
I roll my eyes. “Is that why you hooked up with Suigetsu? He acts like a small child?”  
It’s her turn to choke on the sake. “Did you spy on us?”  
“Ew, no,” I reply, scrunching my nose. “I’m not into that, you slut. But I have to say, I do wonder about those fangs…”  
“Now who’s the slut?” Karin retorts, brushing her red hair away from her face. “Now seriously, when are you going to have kids? Your husband’s not getting any younger, you know.”  
“I thought I’d stop taking the pills after the chunin exam, but I don’t know,” I say, passing a hand over my face, sighing. “I’m not good with small children, they terrify me with their endless crying. You never know why they’re crying in the first place!” The redhead bursts out laughing and I scoff. “It’s true, you know. Akira never cried and I had lots of subordinates to take care of him, now he’s like a small adult.”  
“I can’t believe you’re scared of children. How can you cut a person in half or rip his trachea out with your claws and be terrified of crying children at the same time?” Karin just can’t stop laughing at me.   
“Okay, enough with the sake,” I say, taking the bottle away from her, but she snatches it back.  
She sticks out her tongue at me, then fills our cups again. “I’m never getting married,” she informed me, then drank her sake. “I’m going to continue to chill at this hideout forever,” she adds, chuckling.  
After the second bottle of sake, when she starts calling me Sasuke and tries to straddle me, I decide it’s time to put her to bed.   
~~~~~~~~~~  
We leave Orochimaru’s hideout two days before the final round matches, because I want Akira and Hatsumomo to rest at home so they can fight at full capacity.   
Akira is now at Sasuke’s level when he first arrived to Orochimaru, when it comes to using Chidori; I’ve also taught him two more fire jutsu, Phoenix Fire Technique and Dragon Fire Technique. He’s not ready yet for Sasuke’s original jutsu, the Great Dragon Fire Technique, as it takes too much of his chakra and leaves him unconscious. Sasuke developed this technique so he can fire it at the sky and create thunder clouds for Kirin, the most powerful lightning jutsu he can use. The fucker still refuses to teach me Kirin.  
Hatsumomo has mastered to some extent one of her clan’s greatest techniques, Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals. Her chakra control needs improving, so she can’t keep up the technique longer than ten minutes for now. However, she can combine it with the jutsu she learned from Suigetsu, Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death, thus becoming unbeatable for those ten minutes. Well, that is, if her opponent is not a Sharingan or Byakugan user. The Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals Technique allows the user to surround the target with large mirrors made of ice. Because of her clan’s kekkei genkai, Hatsumomo can enter one of these mirrors and her reflection will appear in all of the mirrors; with her current speed and stamina, she can travel between two or three mirrors during those ten minutes, but for an inexperienced opponent it will seem like she’s throwing water needles from every mirror at once.   
As far as their abilities go, they’re ready to win.


	46. Chapter 46

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steamy chapter ahead :D

“Honey, I’m…” I find Kakashi sleeping on the bed, his waist wrapped loosely in a towel, his hair still wet from the shower. “…home early.”  
I approach the bed, thinking I should probably cover him up with a blanket and let him sleep, but wouldn’t that be a waste? I lick my lips, then kneel on the bed beside him, but even though I moved lightly, he wakes up. He looks at me through hooded eyes, then pushes a hand towards me, grabs my arm and pulls me closer. He hugs me tight, trying to wrap his whole body around mine and kisses my forehead, before closing his eyes again.  
“I missed you, too,” I say, chuckling.  
He kisses my forehead again and I feel him smiling against my skin. “You’re home early. Everything alright?”  
I nod, then bury my face in the crook of his neck; I love his fresh smell, with a musky undertone. “After their hellish training, I thought it best to give them some time to rest before the final round matches.”  
Kakashi hums, then rolls on his back, pulling me on top of him, then he places his hands on my buttocks, under my kimono, squeezing them hard. I straddle him and the movement pushes my already short kimono up. I brace my hands around his head, then lean down to capture his lips in a kiss. I nip at his bottom lip, biting it before running my tongue over it. He squeezes my ass again, pressing my body hard onto his and I feel his erection rubbing against me through the panties.  
I let out a soft sigh and start moving slowly on top of him. I remove the ribbon keeping my kimono together, then Kakashi places one hand on my left hip and runs his other palm up on my body. He starts kneading one of my breasts and rubbing his fingers on my nipple while I’m rolling my hips on top of him. I take his hands, pinning them above his head and tie his wrists together with the ribbon I was still holding, then bind them to the headboard.  
“Oh?” Kakashi looks at me, amused.  
I chuckle, leaning down to brush my tongue over his lips, teasingly. “You should’ve seen it coming. After all, you gave me the idea.”  
I roll my hips again and press hard against him, eliciting a low moan from him. I’m looking at him through hooded eyes while I grab my tits, playing with them and pinching my nipples. Kakashi tugs on the binding, his eyes dark with desire. I push my thumbs under the waistband of my panties, pushing them off of me slowly. I arch my body, adjusting my position so I can slide my panties along my thighs and push my tits in his face. I feel his tongue briefly touch one of my nipple before his mouth closes around it, sucking almost painfully hard on it. I throw my head back, moaning and he buckles his hips.  
He’s painfully hard when I reach a hand between our bodies and stroke him leisurely; I align his erection with my entrance and I roll my hips again, barely touching him. Kakashi growls, his hips buckle on their own accord and he tugs on the binding again, harder this time.  
I slowly descend on his dick, moaning when I feel my walls stretching to adjust to his large size. I move slowly, taking my time to savor every sensation, slamming my body into his every once in a while.  
I place a hand behind me on the bed, then lean on my back a little. I lick my middle finger, then let my hand slide down on my body, until I settle it between my legs. I start moving my finger on my clit in circular motion and I smirk at Kakashi when I see the dark, dangerous look of his eyes.  
“Don’t provoke me so much, Sayuri.” His voice has dropped a few octaves and it makes my whole body shiver.  
I put enough pressure on my clit to bring me closer to the edge, then I adjust my position, placing both of my hands on his chest. I’m moving faster and harder on top of him, my hips slamming against his. When I feel him twitch inside of me and see him bite his lip in pleasure, I break the rhythm with a chuckle, moving slowly again.  
Kakashi curses under his breath, then tugs on his binding once, twice, before ripping the cord. In a fumble of motions, he pulls me underneath him, his body pressing me into the bed face first. He tangles one of his hands in my hair, puling hard on it as he raises my head. I let out a loud moan at the sudden pain, but my lips are still curved in a smile.  
“Don’t play with me,” he murmurs into my ear, before putting his mouth on my neck and biting hard the the sensitive flesh, making me moan again.  
He pulls on my hair again, then he grips one of my legs with his free hand, folding it and bringing it up on the bed, thus parting my thighs before sliding into me again, fully sheathing himself in one go. He sets up a punishing pace, slamming hard and fast into me. I arch my body against his and the new angle allows him to hit my spot every time he slides back in.  
I cry out in pleasure and close my eyes, tensing around him; I’m very close to reach my climax when he pulls out of me suddenly. I scream out in frustration and I try to move, but he’s keeping me tight with the hand in my hair and the other one gripping my hip.  
Kakashi leans over me, licking the shell of my ear before sucking my earlobe into his mouth and bites on it. “Do you want to come?”  
I growl and he pulls my hair. “Sayuri. Do you want to come?”  
I murmur “yes”, but Kakashi bites harder on my earlobe. “Yes, you fucking bastard!”  
He slaps my butt hard. “Then beg.”  
I grit my teeth and arch my body into his, seeking friction, but he’s having none of that. I can’t believe how much I like this game.  
He loves to see me powerless. “Come on, love. You just have to beg.”  
I close my eyes for a second, then turn my head to face him. I look at him through hooded eyes, then bite my lower lip and whisper “Please, Kakashi.”  
He arches an eyebrow at me, but he aligns his cock with my entrance again.  
“Please, Kakashi,” I moan, licking my lips leisurely and staring him down defiantly over my shoulder.  
He smirks at me, then buries himself to the hilt inside me, eliciting a loud moan from me. He thrusts hard into me, every stroke powerful, just the way I like it. I clench around him and it doesn’t take long before he picks up the pace, chasing his own release. He covers my body with his and goes still, spilling hot liquid deep inside of me as my walls tighten around him almost painfully with my own orgasm.  
He falls on his side on the bed, then wraps his arms around me in a gentle embrace as we’re both regaining our breath. He presses soft kisses to my shoulder and I twist in his arms to kiss him deeply.  
“Remind me to provoke you like that again,” I tease and he laughs. “But I’ll never beg the proper way.”  
“I wouldn’t even want you to,” he replies, kissing me again.  
We cuddle for a while before he gets up from the bed with me in my arms and takes me to the bathroom for a steamy shower. That kind of steamy.


	47. Chapter 47

The twenty one genins that advanced to the final round matches are going to be randomly assigned to three groups. The seven genins in a group have to battle each other, two at a time, until there is one winner left. The three winners at the end of the final round will be appointed chunin.  
I take my place next to Neji , Temari and Kankuro, in the front row seats prepared for jonins that have students fighting in the final round. Kakashi and the other Kage are seated in the royal balcony, on a platform, surrounded by Anbu shinobi. Every Kage has his right hand man behind him – Shikamaru stands behind Kakashi, but for some reason looks more annoyed than usual. It’s not the first time I notice the tension between the two of them ever since I came back from Orochimaru’s hideout, but I didn’t ask Kakashi yet what happened between them.  
I lean back on my chair, folding my arms over my chest. I realize I was tapping my foot when Neji places his hand on my knee. “Stop doing it, it’s annoying.”  
I mutter an apology, then stick my tongue out at him. “Stop playing cool, I know you’re worried, too.”  
He rolls his eyes, but doesn’t contradict me. Kankuro is in the middle of boasting about his genin, when Shiranui Genma, the proctor of the final round and Shizune’s hot boyfriend calls the students in the middle of the arena and starts speaking about the rules and other organizational matters.  
Eventually, the names of the students from each group appears on a large screen and I curse under my breath; I was hoping my two students will be in different groups, so they would have better chances to win, but unfortunately, both Akira and Hatsumomo are in the first group. Hideo, the Hyuga boy from Neji’s team is the only Leaf genin in the second group,alongside genins from Sunagakure and Kirigakure. whereas Naoki, the other genin from Neji’s team is in the third group, the same group as Kankuro’s student.  
Then, two names appear on the screen and Genma asks the other genin to go back to their seats, in the same area as their commanding jonins. Hatsumomo and another Leaf genin, a taijutsu specialist, are the first to fight.  
“He’s fast,” Akira tells me, sitting behind me. “But it won’t matter how fast he is if he gets caught in her jutsu,” he adds, smiling, with a hint of pride in his voice. They hated each other in the beginning, but they are close now, like brother and sister. She’s still teasing and sometimes insulting him, but she always keeps her best remarks for Hisao; I admit, I love their quarrels.  
Hatsumomo gets a few hits from her opponent, who is so fast that he manages to avoid every kunai or shuriken that she throws at him. She’s not even trying to match his speed or waste any chakra for now, because she’s waiting for the right moment to catch him in her ice mirrors. It appears like she’s running away from her opponent at first, but when she’s far enough from him, Hatsumomo throws some more kunai at him. The boy manages to avoid them, again, but some of the kunai had paper bombs attached to them, that explode around him.  
The arena is covered in smoke and dust for a while, but when the air clears, we are greeted with the sight of a cylinder like construction made of ice mirrors. In ten minutes, Hatsumomo will run out of chakra. In the corner of my eye, I can see Neji activating his Byakugan and his eyes widen in surprise.  
I open my mouth to ask him what happened, when one of the ice cubes that make up the dome shatters, and Hatsumomo’s opponent drags his wounded body out. She has probably stopped using her chakra on her ice mirrors if the boy managed to break out and escape, but he’s got so many ice needles sticking out of his body that he can’t stand anymore. Hatsumomo comes out from behind her mirrors, her sword drawn from the scabbard. Her opponent tries to get up, gasping at every move, but Genma steps in, stopping the fight. He declares Hatsumomo the winner and calls the medical team to take the wounded genin away. She has to leave with them too to have her wounds healed and wrapped in bandages before she’s allowed to join the other participants.  
“Good luck,” I tell Akira when his name appears on the screen.  
Akira makes his way to the arena at the same time as a genin from Iwagakure, an older boy, twice the size of Akira’s. As soon as Genma gives them permission to begin, the Iwagakure shinobi activates his Earth Release and starts throwing huge rocks at Akira. He also tries attacking the hybrid from behind these rocks, but Akira activates his Sharingan and manages to avoid all those attacks.  
Akira uses the Phoenix Flower jutsu, also sending shuriken concealed in the small fireballs. Thus, his opponent creates a dome like construction made of stone, protecting himself; the fireballs don’t do much damage to the rock and the shurikens get stuck in it. However, this gives Akira time to activate Chidori; he charges towards his opponent, easily penetrating the dome made of stone, destroying it in the process. The genin from Iwagakure jumps back, escaping the Chidori, but Akira’s Sharingan catches his every move. A scream pierces the air when Akira’s elongated sword infused with lightning chakra cuts through his opponent’s left thigh, then pins him to the ground. The lightning chakra emanating from the sword travels the boy’s entire body, electrocuting him and leaving him unconscious.  
Genma declares Akira the winner, then calls for the medical team; the start treating the Iwagakure genin right there, in the arena, because the wound on his thigh had pierced the femoral artery and is life threatening.  
Since he doesn’t have any injuries, Akira joins the other genin at the same time as Hatsumomo; they congratulate each other, but Hatsumomo looks really uneasy and worried.  
“This is going to be interesting to watch, when it is their time to fight” Neji tells me, with a small smile on his lips. “I heard people are placing bets already, most are in favour of Akira. How many times can he activate Chidori?”  
I chuckle, then shake my head. “Twice a day. I’m not looking forward to watching their fight, to be honest. Your students are lucky, there’s no chance for them to fight each other.”  
“When did you become so soft?” he mocks me, but it only earns him a punch in his shoulder.  
It’s late in the afternoon when the next four fights are over; there are only three fights left: Akira vs. Hatsumomo, Hideo’s battle with a Kirigakure genin and Kankuro’s student against an Iwagakure genin. Naoki had to fight against Kankuro’s puppeteer and lost; he’s now with the medical team, who are trying to get the poison out of his body.  
“Thank you for the antidote,” Neji tells me as soon as he returns from the medical room. “Where did you get it?”  
I smile before replying “It’s Orochimaru’s special antidote, it can neutralise any kind of poison.”  
Orochimaru had tried the same experiment on Akira during the training month as he did on me all those years ago, trying to make my student immune to poison too. When he failed, he came up with the idea of creating a very powerful universal antidote.  
It’s finally time for Akira and Hatsumomo’s battle; it’s obvious for everyone that she’s a bit scared, even though she’s doing her best to hide it. She draws her sword, ready to infuse it with wind chakra, because her demonic ice mirrors are useless against a Sharingan user. Akira doesn’t move until Genma gives them permission to start fighting, and even then, he only defends himself against Hatsumomo’s attacks. He makes bones stick out of his skin everytime she tries to land a hit, but never attacks her himself.  
Hatsumomo is getting angrier by the minute, hitting at Akira with her sword and driving him into a corner. Akira had drawn his sword, too, but he didn’t infuse it with lightning chakra. He kicks her in the abdomen, pushing her away from him, but he still doesn’t attack. He looks uncertain, as if he doesn’t know what to do. Hatsumomo starts creating ice spears and throwing them at him, but by using his Sharingan, Akira can avoid them all.  
He eventually decides to activate Chidori and charge at her, but their speed is similar. She jumps to the side and Akira ends up hitting the wall of the arena, creating a large hole. The explosion covers them both in smoke and debris, but we can still hear the clanks of their swords.  
When the air clears, we can see Hatsumomo concentrate her remaining chakra in her sword, then she charges at Akira. I’m a bit worried, because Akira sometimes snaps during moments like this and his stamina is superior to Hatsumomo’s. He could easily avoid her attack, then use his bones to injure her, but instead of that, he raises one arm and speaks, in a clear voice “I give up.”  
Hatsumomo sticks her heels in the ground, barely stopping her sprint, the tip of her sword almost touching Akira’s throat. She’s breathing heavily as she widens her eyes, staring at her teammate and opponent.  
I exhale, only now realising I was holding my breath. I honestly can’t believe this is the outcome and judging from Hatsumomo’s shocked expression, she didn’t see it coming either. “I don’t have any chakra left,” Akira says again, gritting his teeth before offering her a fake smile.  
“Yuki Hatsumomo is the winner,” Genma announces, then sends both genins to the medical room to have their cuts and bruises dealt with.  
I arrive in the medical room at the same time as them and I can’t help but pick up Hatsumomo in my arms and spin with her a few times. “You won!”  
She acts embarassed and mutters something under her breath, but her happiness is almost palpable. A medical kunoichi takes her away, because she has a wound across her back that needs to be treated. When I’m alone with Akira, I sit beside him on the bed and place my hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay with your decision?”  
He sighs, then turns his head to me. “I realized in the middle of the fight that I could kill her. End her life. That scared me, Sayuri – sama. I want to become the strongest shinobi, but I want to use my power to protect the people close to me.”  
I circle his shoulders with my arm, bringing him closer to me. “You’re too wise for you own age, Akira. You could have won the fight without killing her, you know.”  
Akira shrugs and doesn’t say anything. He probably doesn’t really understand why he gave up on the fight, but I’m glad it ended up this way. Judging from his abilities, Akira is at the same level as a jonin right now and he could become even stronger in time. That is, unless I push him too much and his body fails him, like what happened to Kimimaro. I’ll just have to concentrate on finding some suitable drugs for him, together with Orochimaru, instead of training him. His mind also needs to grow, he’s barely six years old, no matter how mature he looks.  
Hatsumomo, despite her behavior in the beginning, when she first became a genin and was reckless and moody, demonstrated throughout the missions we had together that she has leadership skills and works well under pressure.  
Eventually, the final round matches are over and the last two winners are Hideo and Kankuro’s student.


	48. Chapter 48

“Look at your tanned skin! And that tattoo looks amazing, did it hurt?”   
I’m back at Orochimaru’s hideout, changing clothes after the mission when Karin enters the room, whistling.   
“I stayed in Sunagakure for two weeks before the mission. And yes, it hurt like a bitch,” I tell her, chuckling.   
I place my hands on my breasts, lifting them and Karin bends down to see the tattoo better. At the first glance, it looks like two outstretched wings, but when you look closer, you see that every feather is decorated with spirals, dots and circles.  
The diplomatic trip to Sunagakure was just like a vacation for me. The Hogake, Kazegake and their advisors had lots of meetings, so Temari would always drench me in suscreen and drag me around the village, showing me all the interesting places in Sunagakure. I thought I could handle spicy food before I tried some specialties from Suna – safe to say, I thought wrong. The small tattoo shop kept me busy for a whole day; the tattoo artist was actually a jonin from Suna and I was lucky to find his shop open, because he was usually sent in long missions.   
My vacation was cut short, however, when the Kazekage requested help from the Hokage with hunting an S rank criminal, a genjutsu specialist. Shikamaru immediately jumped to the chance to recommend me for the mission, since he disapproved of Kakashi’s decision to take me with him. I couldn’t refuse, of course, so I was sent to accompany Kankuro on the hunting mission.   
After the mission was over, instead of returning to Konoha, I decided to make my way to Orochimaru’s hideout and spend a few weeks helping him with experiments.  
“I brought you some sweets and spicy wine from Sunagakure,” I tell Karin and she claps her hands.   
“Let me go hide them, I don’t want Suigetsu to find and eat them,” she mutters, chuckling to herself. She takes only one small chocolate bar and starts munching on it at the same time as she stacks the other sweets in boxes labeled “Sayuri’s old clothes”.  
I laugh, shaking my head as I wrap a rope like belt around my waist, to keep my loose long shirt together. It’s one of my old shirts that I left at the hideout, that has only the Uchiha crest on the back. Looking at it, I can’t help but remember how easy my life used to be; I only had one purpose, find ways to become more powerful. To be honest, sometimes I miss not having to explain myself or my actions to someone else. For example, had it not been for Kankuro, I would’ve brought the S rank criminal to the hideout for some research. His skills were amazing, he could place you in genjutsu while you were already under his illusions. Damn kekkei genkai, otherwise I would’ve copied it with my Sharingan.  
“What’s this?” Suigetsu asks, grabbing Karin’s chin with one hand. He wipes the corner of her mouth with his thumb, then licks it, gasping. “Where did you get this chocolate, you selfish glutton?”  
I leave them behind to quarell, then make my way to Orochimaru’s lab. It’s a clone of himself that he’s trying to create and I can’t wait to see the end result. The Konoha council has been quiet about his experiments ever since I let them have Orochimaru’s powerful antidote, during the chunin exams.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
The news of an attack on the Tsuchikage’s residence reaches Konoha a few days after I return from Orochimaru’s hideout along with the message that the Hokage will be coming home too, a week earlier than he was supposed to. They had a private party with few guards at the end of the diplomatic trip and a group of exiled shinobi from Iwagakure decided to make their move then.   
On the day of his arrival, I summon Kanda to tell me when he’s close, so that I can wait for him at the gates. I’m planning to cook his favourite food too, miso soup with eggplant and salt broiled saury – hopefully, I will not stress eat everything before he arrives.   
As soon as Kanda tells me Kakashi and his entourage are close to Konoha, I put on a coat and make my way to the gates. I’ve been feeling anxious and overly emotional for the past few days – I almost trip when I realize the implications, but I push the thought away. I actually trip on a rock and fell on my knees when I remember I had ran out of pills shortly before the final round matches and I completely forgot about taking them because of the trip to Suna.   
I get up and wipe the dust off my knees; before I know it, I’m already at the gates, overthinking. However, as soon as I see Kakashi, I push all thoughts aside and start running towards him. I jump on him and wrap my arms around him tight and I hear him chuckle when he hugs me back.  
“I didn’t expect such a warm welcome,” he says, then hisses when I hit his shoulder with my fist.  
“I was worried!” I yell and his eyes widen.   
“I’m sorry about that, I’m okay,” he replies, then pulls me back in an embrace again.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
He was wounded during the attack, because he protected the Tsuchikage – he had a long, deep cut across his right shoulderblade, judging from the fresh scar and the way his shoulder is still stiff when he moves. I tried to be gentle during our shower together, but I lost my mind when he slammed me into the wall and roughly claimed my mouth with his, while hot water was pouring over us.  
“Thank you for the food,” he tells me when he’s finished eating.   
“Did you and Shikamaru solve whatever your problem was?”  
He shrugs his left shoulder only, then brushes his fingers through his hair. “Probably. We always got along well before I was appointed Hokage, but now I’m apparently dumping too much of my work on him.”  
I’d like to remind him that Shikamaru is his subordinate, but I bite my tongue and instead of making the remark, I just nod. It wouldn’t do us any good to argue. Instead, I make my way to him and settle in his lap, resting my head on his left shoulder. He loosely wraps one arm around me, his other hand gently caressing my back.   
“There’s something on your mind,” he tells me, resting his chin on the top of my head.   
I hum in his shoulder. I should probably tell him I stopped taking the pills before going to Suna, but for some reason, I can’t bring up the subject. No, scratch that. I don’t want to talk about it. Maybe tomorrow.


	49. Chapter 49

After two miscarriages in six months, both soon after I discovered I was pregnant, I was tempted to restart taking my pills. Kakashi never put any pressure on me and tried to support me in any way he could, but I had begun to start thinking there was actually something wrong with my body. All those experiments I’d put it through in my quest for power are probably the cause, but he never mentions it to me, even though I believe he’s thinking about the same thing.   
I didn’t even know how to act, because I didn’t feel depressed or anything. I just went on with my life, trained my team, went on missions, went to Orochimaru’s hideout from time to time. At least, I don’t think I was depressed.   
“Here, I brought you dinner,” I tell Kakashi, dropping the wrapped package on his desk. I haven’t been able to spend time with him lately and I’m starting to feel guilty. I don’t want him to think I avoid him.  
He rubs his tired eyes and smiles at me. The last few days were hectic for him, he had more work than usual, because Shikamaru has taken some time off and went to Sunagakure right before the preparations for the chunin exam started. When he came back, he offered to help, but Kakashi refused. I’m a proctor again, this time for the final round and Genma will be proctor during the preliminaries, but until then, I only have to train Hisao, because Akira is good enough for this exam already. Hisao almost cried today when I told him that both me and Shikamaru will train him for the chunin exam, because having two tutors is “beyond troublesome”, apparently.  
“You’ve had too many missions lately, why don’t you take some time off?” he suggests, pushing his documents aside to make room for the bento box.   
I shrug. “What am I supposed to do alone at home?”  
“Did you start taking your pills again?” He seems unconfortable when he asks me this, but I’m honestly surprised it took him this long.  
“No,” I reply after a while. The truth is that on the day I decided to start taking them again, I met Kurenai and Mirai on an evening walk; watching them together made me reconsider my thoughts.  
Kakashi puts his chopsticks aside, then clasps his hands together. “I’m worried about you. I didn’t want to say anything, but I…”  
“Then don’t say it,” I snap. It came out harsh and I didn’t mean it, so I sigh before speaking again. “I’m not a fragile woman that can’t handle herself.”  
“You’ve locked your feelings inside and act like nothing happened, how is that handling yourself?”  
“When did you become a psychologist?” I try to joke, but he doesn’t look amused. “Okay, I admit, it was not a very healthy way of handling things, but I’m fine now.”  
I circle the desk, then sit in his lap; his arms immediately wrap around me and he pulls me close, resting his chin on the top of my head. “I want children with you.”  
“I want that too, but I need to keep you safe as well,” he replies, kissing my forehead. “Stay in the village, please.”  
“Then give me something to do! It’s not like I can spend all my time training Hisao, since I suppose going to Orochimaru is off the limits as well.”  
I raise my head to look at him and I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at his sly smile.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Every time a Hidden Village holds a chunin exam, every other Kage and their entourage are invited to said village. Some decide to come only during the final rounds, others arrive a few days earlier and have to be entertained and kept occupied so as not to get bored. Usually, the Kage comes accompanied by his bodyguards and advisors only.   
When I asked Kakashi to give me something to do, I surely didn’t expect to spend three days entertaining – babysitting – the Raikage’s younger brother, who had the brilliant idea to come see the chunin exam for himself and wreck my brain with his rap.  
“I’m going to crack someone’s head open. Either yours or mine, whichever can be done faster,” I tell him matter - of - factly, the second day after his arrival.  
“Crack his head open, that sounds good,” he mutters under his breath, then takes out his small notebook and starts writing in it.  
“Just eat your ramen, please,” I retort, sighing into my bowl. I’ve been hearing Killer B rap in my brain for one day and a half, but it feels like months. “I’ll fucking put you in genjutsu,” I murmur with my mouth full of noodles.  
“Do you have any genins in the final round?” he asks me in a normal way and I thank the gods above.   
I start telling him about Akira and Hisao, but it doesn’t take long until he makes up a few rap lines about how the Kumogakure genins are better, so I give up.


	50. Chapter 50

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is complete! Thank you to everyone who read it, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

The final round of the exam ended with only older genins being promoted to chunin, at the request of the daimyo, so Hatsumomo is still the only chunin in Team 15. However, two months later, no one is thinking about that anymore, because Naruto has finally proposed to Hinata, so Konoha is getting ready for a huge wedding, fit for the Hero of the Leaf.  
“If you make me spend time with Killer B again, I’ll end you,” I told Kakashi before the Raikage and his entourage arrived for the wedding, threatening him with the skewer from my dango.  
My threat went unnoticed, because here I am,squeezed on a bench between Tenten and Gaara, while Killer B is throwing rap lyrics everywhere, boasting about the extravagant things the Raikage will gift Naruto for his wedding. Both me and Tenten sigh deeply when Kankuro furiously joins the show, trying to counter Killer B.  
“One more rap line and I’ll cut you tongue off,” I say, squinting my eyes at Killer B. I groan when he picks up his notebook again. He has created a list of threats and insults with my name on top of it.  
“I was planning to attend the wedding as Naruto’s friend, not the Kazekage,” Gaara tells us.  
“Naruto will surely be happier that way,” Tenten assures him, chuckling.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“I can’t believe my idiot brother didn’t come to the wedding,” I tell Sakura and she sighs.  
She’s still holding the small paper containing a one word message, “congratulations”, from Sasuke.  
“It’s okay, I understand the importance of his mission,” she murmurs and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “Look at Hinata,” she says, trying to chance the subject. “Such a beautiful bride.”  
I turn my head in time to see cute little Mirai offering flowers to Hinata, Kurenai standing behind her daughter. Everyone from Konoha was able to attend the wedding, because Kakashi came up with the idea of asking Gaara to lend him some Sunagakure shinobi to replace the Leaf ninja charged with protecting the village.  
I feel a strong arm wrapping around my waist, the palm resting on my abdomen, before Kakashi asks me “Everything alright?”  
“For the fifth time today, yes,” I reply, laughing.  
Sakura arches an eyebrow at us; she looks at Kakashi’s hand, then at me, before settling her eyes on her former sensei’s face. She gasps and parts her lips to say something, but I manage to slap both my palms over her mouth and shush her before she can utter a word.  
“No one knows yet!”  
I remove my hands when I’m sure she won’t yell or anything. She’s one of the very few people that knew about the miscarriages when they happened, because we needed someone we could trust when I was in the hospital. She has taken great care of me when I was at my most vulnerable, so it’s fitting that she should be the first one to find out this time, too.  
“We’re both a bit paranoid” I tell her as an excuse and she chuckles.  
“Congratulations, Sayuri, Kakashi – sensei,” she whispers, smiling happily.  
When he’s not with me, Kakashi summons his ninken as bodyguards, to keep their eyes on me and notify him as soon as possible if anything happens.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
“How do you feel about Itachi and Sakumo?” I ask, my voice a whisper, because I’ve never been as exhausted in my entire life.  
Sasuke and Sakura are the first two to visit me, each of them holding one baby.  
Kakashi gently takes my hand, nodding; he can’t keep his eyes off his sons. I squeeze his hand back, whispering “I love you,” and when he answers, his voice is thick with emotion.  
“I love you, too.”


End file.
